That's my kill!
by striker-gurl
Summary: By day a normal teenage girl, by night an assassin. What happens when Kairi meets a boy with a similar secret?
1. Reunion

Kairi slid forward on her desk and rested her head on her hands, staring blankly at her oh so boring teacher. On the oh so boring blackboard were oh so boring formulas that Kairi scribbled down in her oh so boring notebook on her oh so boring desk, which all lead back to her oh so normal life. That is, at daytime. (A/N: sorry, did I say "Oh so" too much?)

Kairi then switched her gaze to the clock, which read 3:00. She started to pack up her things, and before her teacher could scold her for making rude noises while he was talking, the bell rang. Kairi rushed out of the room, and outside.

She always wanted to get out early before all the kids filed noisily outside, blocking up the halls inconsiderately talking to their friends or making out with their boyfriends. Kairi would always hurt somebody trying to get some fresh air.

You see, Kairi didn't have any friends. Well that wasn't entirely true, she did have some. But not at school. They were more like her brothers and sisters (they weren't related to her though) and she only saw them at night.

Kairi made her way home slowly, dragging her feet and getting the bottom of her jeans all muddy. She wasn't a tomboy, but she wasn't really much of a girly girl either. In fact she didn't really care at all what she wore. That is, at daytime.

Kairi was also the fastest girl at school. Actually, she was the fastest _**person** _

in school. She could outrun anybody there. Of course, she had to be fast. Her job relied on stealth and speed.

You see, Kairi was an assassin…

When she got home, she found a young lady sitting on the couch, her long black hair tied up in a tight bun. The girl eyed Kairi through the corner of her eye, then whipped around and threw a sharp looking knife right at her. Kairi side stepped to avoid it, but it got just a bit of her hair. Kairi grinned at the lady. The lady smirked at Kairi.

"TIFA!" Kairi shouted happily, bounding over to the woman and tackling her with a hug.

"It's great to see you too kid" Tifa laughed and gave Kairi a little noogie.

"How's life been treatin' ya?" Tifa asked once they were both a little calmer.

"Oh you have no idea Tifa…" Kairi said dismally as she took a seat next to Tifa on the couch. "School is horrible. I thought I would be out chasing after the bad guys and killing them. Aren't I an assassin? Why won't Vincent let me go out at night?"

If you're a bit lost right now, that's okay. Tifa is another assassin, working for the same boss, Vincent. Kairi and Tifa are very good friends, almost like sisters, and both have the same hobby: killing people. Only the bad guys of course.

"Don't be so whiny Kai. You know why Vincent won't let you go out. You have school, and Cyrus and I are covering you. Besides, we haven't found Bronco yet anyway, so its not like we have been doing anything anyway," Critisized Tifa, and getting up, walked into the kitchen.

(And just so you know, Bronco is an evil guy that they hate and are trying to kill.)

Kairi followed Tifa into the kitchen to protest some more, but found that Tifa wasn't alone. Vincent and Cyrus had appeared and Cyrus was stuffing himself with some food he found on Kairi's counter.

"Hi Kairi" Cyrus greeted her with a smile.

"Its good to see you again, Kai" Vincent said, giving her a small nod. Kairi couldn't have been happier.

As you might have already noticed, Kairi hadn't seen her friends in a while. She had to leave them to go to school because Vincent said that Kairi, being so young and all, needed two identities. Being a student at a public school was a great cover, and she could still do her job at night.

Well since I'm already getting into the subject, I might as well just tell you how Kairi became an assassin in the first place. It all started in the 5th grade, when Kairi had come home from school.

"_Mom? Dad?" Kairi called as she entered the seemingly empty household. _

"_I'm home!"_

_They were supposed to be home to take her to soccer practice. She looked all around on the bottom floor of her house, but couldn't find them. Their cars were parked in the driveway, so that indicated to Kairi that something was wrong. _

_Kairi acsended the stairs carefully and quietly. For some reason, her body wanted her to be careful, in case there was any sort of danger, which Kairi in a odd manner, sensed. As she turned the corner, she saw a trickle of blood coming from under her parents bedroom door. Stunned and fearful, Kairi inched forward. _

_Then, when she reached the doorway, she planted herself firmly against the wall. Her heart was thumping wildly in her chest, and she heard voices inside the room. They muttered something inaudible, and then disappeared. Just to be sure, Kairi closed her eyes tightly, opened them, and shouted,_

"_BOO!" into the room. _

So how do you like my first chappie? Plz review! .


	2. Competition

Chap. 2

_Kairi looked around the room, her voice resonating in the air. Nobody was there. Then Kairi looked down, and her eyes widened in horror. _

_There, on the floor were her parents, lying lifelessly and bloody amidst the shattered glass from their bedroom window. Kairi scuttled to their side and screamed their names, shaking them vigorously. _

"_Mom! Dad!" She yelled, and started to bawl uncontrollably. "Come back! Wake up! This game isn't funny!"_

_But even though she tried to make her parents wake up, the truth was sinking in, and Kairi stopped shaking them._

"_No! You have to take me to soccer practice! I'm not ready for this alone! Don't leave! I n-need you!" She cried, and pounded her little fists on the ground. Her cheeks were soaked with tears as she tried hopelessly to revive her parents. Kairi, shaking, curled up in a ball and rocked back and forth, whispering comforting words to herself._

"_No, Kairi, wake up." She would tell herself. "This is a dream. Mom, tell me to wake up and get ready for school. I'M DREAMING! GOD I'M DREAMING!" She opened her eyes and looked around hopefully to see if it wasn't real. Unfortunately for her, it was. Kairi sniffled and let what tears she had left in her roll down. When she looked back at her dead parents, she ground her teeth in anger and punched herself._

"_It's all your fault Kairi," She said to herself angrily and punched herself again. More tears rolled down her already wet cheeks._

"_You should've come home earlier. But you needed to talk to your friends first didn't you. STUPID! YOU SHOULD'VE COME HOME EARLIER!" Kairi yelled at the top her lungs, punching herself a couple of more times to relieve all her anger. _

_Just then a hand touched her shoulder gently. Kairi whipped around and stared at the man in horror. She saw he had his hand extended as if he wanted her to take it. _

"_How did you get in here? Do you want to kill me? Is that it? Well fine go ahead!" At this time Kairi had gotten up to her feet and was raising her voice decibel by decibel. _

"_I have nothing to live for anyway! JUST KILL ME!" Kairi was huffing, and she was glaring at the man. He didn't even flinch. He just held out his hand and said something in Japanese. Of course, Kairi understood him, and looked back at her parents. She knew they were dead, but for some reason she felt guilty just leaving them there._

"_Will they be alright?" She asked solemnly._

"_Hai" the man replied. And giving her parents a small prayer, Kairi grabbed the man's hand and left._

Yes, that is how the story went. Kairi reflected upon this memory often, and even now she couldn't remember what the man had said in Japanese that made her trust him so.

That man, of course, was Vincent, her boss. Her life changed dramatically after she met him. She met Tifa and Cyrus too, and they all trained for Vincent in becoming assassins. Kairi's main reason in becoming a stealthy killer was to avenge her parents from their horrible deaths.

Kairi had to live with someone, so she moved into her aunt's house. It was a good place too, because her aunt was almost always out of the house, so that gave free access to all her comrades. Kairi lived a good life, though she always wished every night that her parents would still be alive.

But let us return to the present day, when Kairi, Tifa, Cyrus and Vincent are all older and much more experienced.

"Kai, don't you have anything besides oranges in this fridge of yours?" Cyrus asked irritably the next morning. They had all slept over the other night because her aunt was gone on a business trip, and they all wanted to spend some quality time with each other.

Kairi walked into the kitchen yawning.

"Um, I think there should be some cereal in the pantry" Kairi said groggily. She grabbed her lunch from the counter and shoved it in her already full backpack.

"Morning guys" Tifa greeted as she came into the room. Her bun, which used to be nice and neat, was messy and matted, but of course, she still looked good.

Kairi cursed when she looked at the time, and rushing past Tifa, did a front handspring across the banister and into her room. She had to admit, having flexibility skills came in very useful for late morning rituals. She looked around, grabbed her homework from her desk and did another perfect flip downstairs.

"Hey Kai, I made some pancakes. You hungry?" Tifa asked when Kairi walked calmly back into the kitchen.

"Sorry, no time" Kairi said hastily, throwing her backpack over her shoulder. As she was about to walk out the front door, Cyrus blocked her path and shoved a pancake in her mouth.

"No is not an acceptable answer. You're still a kid, and you need your protein!"

"Dumbass…pancakes don't have protein," Tifa said, shaking her head in dismay.

Meanwhile Kairi was standing there looking like a chipmunk. She punched Cyrus in the stomach and he stumbled out of the way (he pretended it hurt more than it did and she knew that) said goodbye, and walked out. She was very happy to have friends like she did, and even though school was miserable, she always had something to look forward to.

When Kairi reached school grounds she checked her watch. _Hey! Only 2 minutes late this time! _ Kairi thought. She sighed and walked to her class.

"Well Kairi, late again as usual. I don't know what I'm going to do with you…" Ms. Hinako said in her bored tone when Kairi walked through the door. Kairi rolled her eyes and was about to go to her seat when she saw a guy with spiky brown hair occupied it.

"Uh, excuse me, that's my seat" Kairi said exasperatedly to the boy.

He only raised his brow.

"Kairi, I moved you. You now sit right up here in the front," Ms. Hinako told her. Kairi ground her teeth in annoyance and sat down in her new seat.

The rest of the day went pretty downhill until after lunch, when Kairi had P.E., her favorite class. It was pretty much the only class she had an "A" in. Kairi wasn't a bad student, but she really only got B's or C's.

She walked into the girl's locker room and stuck up her nose to the foul smell that emanated in the room. She got dressed quickly, in her white shirt and black shorts, and ran out. When she reached the blacktop she sighed happily. Today was track day, when they had to run a mile. Of course, Kairi was the very best in her class, and this happened to be her favorite day.

"ROLL CALL!" Bellowed her male teacher Mr. Sakka. All the students moaned and walked over to their roll call numbers. After he checked everybody off, he said loudly,

"Today we will be running!" More moans and groans came from the tired looking students. "We will be running a mile! Remember, I will be timing you! If you can, try beating Kairi's record of 4 minutes! Off you go!"

Clouds of dust emerged as the class took off on the track. Kairi was already in the lead, her legs taking her swiftly around the bends. She had run this track so many times in the past year that she could've closed her eyes and had her hands tied around her back and still find her way around and beat everybody.

Kairi was just about finished with the first lap (and these were pretty big laps) when she heard very quietly at her side, some footsteps. She looked to her side to see who had actually caught up to her. It just so happened to be the boy with spiky brown hair she had seen in her first period class.

Kairi was very surprised to find that new, funky-haired boy running just as fast as she was. He noticed she was looking at him and grinned, then shot ahead of her. Kairi ran dazed for a couple of seconds before realizing he was beating her. Laughing to herself, she picked up speed and sprinted up right next to him, trying to get ahead.

The two teens ran side by side almost the whole way, until the very last half lap when the boy started to get a couple of feet ahead. Forgetting that she wasn't supposed to reveal any skills that might give away that she was an assassin, Kairi tumble rolled the last few feet and landed in the splits, her left leg just barely over the finish line. The spiky haired boy had also crossed the line just before she did, and wasn't even panting. Kairi got up, and sighed. She wasn't sure if he had won, or if she had been faster, but either way, Mr. Sakka was congratulating him. Kairi rolled her eyes stupidly. In fact, she was a bit ticked off that some random guy had just shown up one day, stolen her seat in Math, and beat her in running the mile. Frustrated, Kairi stalked off in the direction of the girl's locker room.

The last two periods of her day were boring. Her only thoughts were on the boy that beat her. How did he do it? She was an assassin for goodness sake! Could he possibly be one too? No way. He was just probably just extremely fast. The bell rang and Kairi picked up her stained books and rushed out of the room like normal.

Kairi walked home sadly. In fact, she was rather angry and sad at the moment. She was angry at the boy, and it was bad enough that she had no friends at her school, and that she just lost the one thing that made her somewhat popular.

Kairi made a fist with one hand and smacked it into the palm of her other. She imagined herself beating up that kid, and she laughed to herself.

"Tifa could've beaten him," Kairi said aloud. And it was true. Tifa was probably the fastest person on the planet Earth, according to Kairi.

Just then a finger poked at Kairi's shoulder. Kairi turned around to find the boy who had beaten her with a wide grin spread over his face.

"What do you want?" Kairi said harshly, meaner than she intended.

"I just wanted to say sorry about what happened during PE today" he told her.

"There's nothing to apologize for," Kairi said turning around and walking again. He jogged around her and made pace with her.

"You're really fast ya know that?" He complimented. Kairi shrugged.

"You're faster," she said more to the ground than to him. Suddenly he stopped and put his hand out.

"The name's Sora," he said, moving his hand closer to her. Kairi eyed the hand as if she didn't trust it. Then she smiled. He was only trying to be nice.

"Kairi" she told him and shook his hand. Sora smiled, and they continued walking.

"So how did you get that fast Sora? You're the first person that has ever outran me in school," Kairi blurted out. She just had to know.

Sora seemed rather stunned at the question.

"I guess I just inherited it from my dad's side of the family." He responded. Kairi doubted he gave her a truthful answer, but she decided to let it slide.

"Where do you live?" He asked her, trying to get off the subject.

"Just around the corner," Kairi pointed to the curb that was just a little bit ahead.

"Funny. I live just a couple of streets away." He said quietly. Kairi stopped walking when they reached the corner that turned into her street.

"Well I should go, my aunt is probably expecting me some time soon. See ya tomorrow Sora," Kairi said.

"Yeah, bye Kairi," Sora gave her a pat on the back and turned the opposite direction. Kairi walked a couple of feet before realizing she had forgotten to ask him something. She turned around, but he wasn't there. Kairi stood there puzzled.

_He couldn't have walked away that fast…_Kairi thought suspiciously. Something was telling her that this Sora guy wasn't just any normal kid.


	3. Another one?

Thanks again reviewers! You guys/gals make me so happy! Arigatoo!

………………………………

"So then I hear footsteps, right? And then I turn and see that same guy with spiky brown hair, Sora, beating me at running the mile! I was so surprised…" Kairi was babbling on and on about Sora, to a bored looking Tifa sprawled lazily on Kairi's bed.

"Wait Kai…this Sori guy---"

"Sor**_a_**" Kairi corrected. Tifa rolled her eyes.

"Whatever. So this Sora guy actually beat you? I mean, like Kairi the assassin? How's that possible? He could be one of Bronco's henchmen," Tifa pointed out, raising her index finger like she always did when she was trying to make a point.

"Uh, I highly doubt that," Kairi said, as if Tifa were the dumbest person on Earth, apart from being the fastest.

Tifa was about to retort when Cyrus poked his head through the doorway.

"Excuse me ladies, but I believe Vincent is ready," Cyrus informed. Kairi's eyes widened and she squealed happily.

"Already?" Tifa asked, checking Kairi's alarm clock for the time.

"Yes! Finally all these months of misery are being paid off! I'll race ya to the bottom guys!" Kairi yelled, racing past the two older teens, obviously not caring whether Vincent was ready earlier than usual. Hey, if it was dark out, it was time to do some hunting.

Tifa and Cyrus laughed, and then followed Kairi down the stairs.

Vincent was standing there, looking noble and powerful like he always did. He greeted them individually when they reached him. Of course, Kairi had gotten there first, and was beaming proudly.

"Well, tonight we are going to try to kill somebody," Vincent told the threesome bluntly. There really wasn't any point in talking formally to a group of trained killers.

"Bronco to be specific. Now I want all of you to get dressed in your suits and when you come back, I'll give you your orders." He finished.

Kairi ran up the stairs like a lightning bolt and got dressed quickly. Her clothes basically just consisted of black leather pants and a black long sleeved zipper shirt. Her shirt had a leather collar, which was zipped down a bit to get some air flowing in her lungs caused by her tight black suit. But the most important part of her outfit was her mask. Well, she could barely even call it a mask.

It was more like a black handkerchief that she tied around the bottom part of her face, covering her nose and mouth. She let her hair down too, letting her bangs cover her eyes somewhat.

Kairi stepped in front of her mirror and smiled, but you couldn't see her lips curve because of her mask. It had been awhile since she had worn that suit, and she was very happy to be wearing it again. Then to complete her image, she reached into her closet to retrieve her daggers, which she called "light" and "Dark."

After sliding those in their proper place by her side, she tucked away some ninja-looking knives, which came in very useful for long-range opponents.

Kairi stepped into the hallway, and found Tifa, in her outfit, waiting. Tifa raised her eyebrows mockingly to Kairi, who returned the gesture and they both chuckled.

"Ready Kai?" Tifa asked, her voice a bit muffled by her mask. Kairi nodded.

Together they went back down to Vincent, who was already changed into his suit. (And just so you all know, the male's suits are different than the females.)

"Okay, so here is what we are going to do," Vincent began, and they all leaned toward him and listened closely.

"Cyrus, I want you to take the south side."

"Sure thing boss" Cyrus replied.

"Tifa, I want you to take the west side."

"Your wish is my command" Tifa responded.

"I'm going to take the east side, and Kairi," This time, Vincent looked Kairi right in the eyes and said, "I want you to take the north side."

"Yes sir!" Kairi nodded.

"Now remember, if you find Bronco, kill him, and then tell me. It is very important that you do not hesitate, otherwise his foolish little mind will figure out some way to escape. Clear?" Vincent told them.

The three assassins nodded.

Then, like a football team congregating and splitting apart again, the group went their separate ways, Kairi flipping through the window since it was faster.

Kairi jumped from rooftop to rooftop, searching for any signs of movement, besides the occasional cat or dog.

Then something caught her attention. It was a man with a gun, followed by a group of three or four other masked men.

"Must be Bronco…" Kairi thought aloud, and running across more rooftops to reach the area in which she saw the men, flipped down and landed right in front of the murderers.

The group screeched to halt when they saw Kairi.

"Who the hell are you?" Bronco asked, eying her height and chuckling to himself, his comrades laughing with him.

"Are you Bronco?" Kairi asked stupidly, ignoring the laughing men.

"Maybe. What are you going to do? Kill me? Ooh I'm so scared!" Bronco mocked, running around in a circle pretending to be intimidated by Kairi.

Kairi's blood boiled dangerously.

Bronco's men laughed hysterically, some doubled over laughing. Kairi didn't see what was so funny about seeing a fat man in a suit running around like a chicken. In fact, it made her angry.

"Shut up you big fat ugly piece of shit!" Kairi fumed, and without waiting another second, she leapt at one of the comrades, delivering a couple of kicks to his head. She ducked just in time as another guy tried punching her, and kicked him in the stomach and he flew back about ten feet. She caught another guys fist in her hand and uppercut his chin. He landed right next to his partner.

Bronco, observing at how skilled Kairi was, turned around and started to run as fast as his chubby legs could take him.

Kairi saw him running through the corner of her eye, and punching and kicking the rest of the men until they were all wiped out, she ran after him.

Kairi chased him down and gave Bronco a big blow to the back of his head. He fell over on his face, and Kairi grabbed his jacket and turned him around. She stepped on his stomach, pinning him to the ground.

"You're about to die. Do you have any last words I should tell your mom?" Kairi sneered, whipping out her knife. Bronco snorted, blood trickling from his nose.

"Wither and die in hell!" Bronco choked out, plastering a smirk on his face. Kairi frowned and was about to plunge her knife into his chest when someone grabbed her hand.

Kairi whirled around and looked into a pair of deep blue eyes. It was a boy, with an identical mask and a hood to cover his head. Kairi struggled to get out of his grip.

"That's my kill," He told her coldly. Kairi looked at him with a confused glare.

"Let me go!" She yelled at him, shaking her hand forcefully.

"No" came his blunt response.

Kairi didn't know who this guy was, but she categorized him as an enemy, and swung her leg up to high kick him in the head. He dodged it, but in the process letting go of her hand. She back flipped to get a couple of feet of distance between them.

"Who the hell are you?" She asked angrily. But before he could respond she heard an evil cackling in the distance.

Kairi looked back and saw that Bronco had gotten up and was running away again. Kairi groaned and ignoring the other enemy of hers, chased after him.

She ran at full speed, but then she saw the boy at her side. He bounded off a nearby tree and propelled his leg out, attempting to hit the side of her head. Kairi limbo-ed under him, but he cut his landing short and lashed out his other leg, hitting Kairi in the side of her abdomen.

Kairi flew into a tree trunk. Her stomach hurt, but she had no time to recover, because the boy was about to air kick her again. Kairi put up her hands in a defense position, and the guy's leg made contact with her arms. His leg recoiled off her arms, and he flipped backwards. Without hesitating, Kairi grabbed one of her daggers and flung it as fast as she could at the boy's head.

The boy shifted to the left and the dagger hit the tree behind him, making a big "kachunk" sound as it cuffed the trunk.

He was about to run at her again when they both heard a whistling sound.

It had different pitches and tones to it, and looking at the boy, Kairi presumed he understood it.

"Gotta run," he told her casually. He started to sprint away, but Kairi wasn't about to let him escape. She tailed him for a while, but then decided it wasn't worth it after she had tried to fling a knife at him again, and he dodged it.

That's when Kairi remembered about Bronco. She turned around in hope of seeing his fat human form running in the distance, but saw nothing. Kairi sighed, and walked over to a tree, pulling her dagger out of it with a giant haul.

"Dammit" she cursed at herself. She had finally found the killers and she had let them escape again.

"Kai!" Tifa shouted, running into view. "What happened? I heard noises…"

"I found Bronco…" Kairi began, looking at the ground. For some reason Kairi felt guilty telling Tifa the truth.

"He escaped again. I had him pinned to the ground…but then all of a sudden I was in a big fight with another assassin dude and well…" Kairi was talking fast, and she couldn't think straight.

"Whoa slow down. You say you were in a fight? With who?" Tifa questioned, now taking hold of Kairi's shoulder. Kairi shook her head.

"I don't know. Some guy that looked like one of us. Ya know, with the mask and all. It was really strange. I was just about to kill Bronco, and then he grabbed my hand and we started to duel. He was so skilled…he was definitely another assassin," Kairi told her.

Tifa seemed to be thinking hard about this.

"I bet your right. You see Kai; we just found out that there is another group here, ninjas or something, but probably assassins." Tifa said slowly.

"So do you think the guy I fought…?" Kairi trailed off, anxiety simmering inside her.

Tifa nodded

"I'm sure he was another assassin. C'mon, we need to find Cyrus and Vincent. Tell him _everything _Kai. This town is going to become brutal if we don't."


	4. Filling in the gaps

Plz review guys! Thx! .

……………………………………..

It didn't take Kairi or Tifa long to find Vincent; he was concealed in the darkness of "Ken's mini-mart."

He was awfully surprised to see them running to him, for they were supposed to be looking out for Bronco.

"What is it?" Vincent asked hastily.

"I found Bronco…" Kairi started.

"But she let him escape," Tifa imputed.

"Only because some other guy attacked me…"

"Who we think is another assassin,"

"Because you said there might be another group here…"

"And now Bronco is long gone," Tifa finished.

Vincent seemed to be contemplating over what the two girls just explained to him.

"You aren't hurt, are you Kai?" Vincent asked. Kairi shook her head. The pain from her side had faded a while ago.

Then he turned to Tifa.

"Go find Cyrus and bring him back to Kairi's house." He told her. With a small nod, Tifa was off, gone in a blink of an eye.

Tifa found Cyrus quickly, and in no time they were all in Kairi's living room, the two men sitting on the couch while the females sat on the floor, stretching.

"What happened?" Cyrus asked, eying Vincent nervously. Usually this wouldn't occur. Vincent didn't respond right away and pressed his thumbs together.

"I'm not quite sure…" He finally stated, as if he was choosing his words carefully.

"Kai here, got into a fight," Tifa answered, breaking the uncomfortable silence.

"Did you find Bronco?" Cyrus questioned.

"Um, yeah…but them some idiot, whom we think to be another assassin—"

"He is." Vincent interrupted in a cold voice. Kairi immediately shut up.

"Who is?" Cyrus asked, oblivious to just about everything.

"The boy who attacked Kairi. He's working for that wretched imbecile Aiden. Damn I didn't think he would go this far…" Vincent said.

"Aiden?" Tifa asked, sliding out into the splits. "Who's he?"

"That man is one of the most deadliest killers known to man. He's ten times worse than Bronco. I didn't think he would come to our town…I suppose I thought wrong. Anyway, he tried convincing me to come to his side, but I refused. I didn't want to be part of his gang. So he tried to kill me, and well, I basically fled here and trained my own faction of assassins. I didn't think he was going to come after me, but he's now arrived, with his own group of assassins." Vincent told the threesome.

They stayed silent for a while, Kairi pondering the most. So the guy she fought was an assassin for her new enemy Aiden? It also came to a surprise to Kairi how she, and possibly the others, never knew the exact reason Vincent wanted to train them into killing people. Sure, she always used to assume that Vincent wanted to kill the bad guys, but at the same time, why should they have to be the cops?

It all unraveled rather unclearly to Kairi, but she was starting to make sense of it.

"But it was like the boy was trying to protect Bronco! He stopped me from killing him!" Kairi argued, now wanting to kill him and Bronco more than ever.

"Aiden wants to kill Bronco too, Kai. He also wants to kill you, as well as Tifa, Cyrus and myself." Vincent replied, a hint of malice in his voice.

"So that's why he said, 'that's my kill'…" Kairi thought aloud.

"I hate to be telling this to you now, but I didn't think that Aiden would be coming so soon. I didn't want to put you into this much danger," Vincent apologized, looking at the ground.

"Ah, c'mon boss! We can take them!" Cyrus said in very confident tone. Energy and excitement sparked in his eyes.

"Yeah! This Aiden guy thinks he's so tough! Wait till we get through with him!" Tifa agreed, trying to encourage the excitement.

"That boy wasn't even that hard! He just caught me off guard, and I'm sure if he hadn't, I could've beaten him to a pulp!" Kairi joined in, even though she wasn't so sure she could have beaten him.

Vincent couldn't help but smile at his assassin's positive attitude toward the situation. Then, turning into his serious self, he said,

"I'm glad. But don't take this so lightly. Aiden and his gang are very powerful. They are also very skilled. We will have to train twice as hard if we are to demolish them."

The three trained ninjas nodded and grinned.

"We'll stick with you till the very end boss" Cyrus said sternly but proudly.

……………………………………………….

A pair of gentle hands shook Kairi awake from her slumber. She groaned and opened her eyes slightly, only to see another violet pair staring back at her.

"Aunty?" Kairi asked sleepily, sitting up and rubbing her tired eyes. Her aunt chuckled.

"Who else could it be? C'mon, I made breakfast," She said, grabbing Kairi's hand and lugging her out of bed. The two relatives made their way downstairs, where there were pancakes, bacon and eggs (the typical breakfast) waiting for them, neatly arranged on the round table.

Aunt Marlene talked non-stop about her trip, and only asked once how Kairi had been doing for the past couple of days. Kairi lied easily about what she did, for her aunt obviously didn't know about her being an assassin. Then, it was time for school.

Kairi got dressed, and was about to pack her lunch when she saw it was already packed and ready to go. Kairi smiled and carrying her lunch under one arm and books in the other, walked out the door.

"Bye Aunt Marlene!" She called out before leaving.

"Bye sweetie!" Came her aunt's syrupy reply. Kairi walked to school in a happy manner; for once she might not be late to class.

"Kairi!" Yelled a male's voice behind her. Kairi turned around and saw Sora jogging up to her, panting heavily.

"Geez Sora, what did you do, run 20 miles?" Kairi joked, giving him a light shove.

"Something like that," Sora said, grinning at her. Kairi rolled her eyes in a comical way, and the two teens ambled off to school.

Dodging students and school janitors with plungers in their hands, Kairi and Sora made their way to their first period class. They entered the cubicle with 30 seconds to spare, and sat down, sighing as they took out their materials for the day.

The day passed breezily, some of Kairi's classes passing like the roadrunner and others like the struggling coyote.

But finally the final bell rang and Kairi whistled with joy. She began her rather short walk home, but this time, with her new friend Sora.

"Man I hate school!" Kairi complained, adjusting the weight of her heavy backpack to her left side.

Sora only laughed. He seemed to have something on his mind. Kairi took note of his sudden change in emotion and tried to get a good look at his face, which was looking at the ground.

"Sora? What's the matter? You seem…I dunno, sad?" Kairi asked, getting a tins bit worried.

"Uh, nothing. I just…I'm just tired," he responded, snapping back to attention. As they neared the corner in which Kairi were to turn, Sora grabbed her hand. Flashbacks of the other night flooded into Kairi's mind, and as she circled around to face him, his eyes made her alarmed. It seemed to Kairi that this exact situation happened to her last night, except with the boy that worked for Aiden. Kairi gulped as his beautiful blue eyes made contact with hers.

"I just wanted to say that I really like you…" He breathed, making Kairi so nervous she wanted to scream.

"I…um…like you a lot too Sora," Kairi said weakly. Usually she was very good at keeping her ground when another person tried to stare her down. But with Sora, she felt like she were going to collapse or crumble like a fragile rock.

Sora gave Kairi a genuine smile and let go of her hand.

"I'll see ya tomorrow Kai!" he turned on one foot and walked away. Then he stopped and turned to face her once again.

"Do you mind if I call you 'Kai" from now on? I think it matches your personality better…" He asked, as if he couldn't go on without asking for permission to use her nickname.

Kairi nodded.

"Sure! Can I call you 'So' from now on?" Kairi added in a fake pleadingly voice. Sora shook his head in a joking manner and giving her a small wave of his hand, he disappeared in the reverse direction.

"Oh fuck, I think I like him…" Kairi murmured to no one in particular.

_You get all fuzzy and warm inside, and you can't stop thinking about him…_

That's what Kairi's mother had said when she had asked what love was like. Kairi was starting to feel those symptoms and smiling to herself, she walked the rest of the way home, her mind only on Sora.

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Just in case you were confused, when Kairi says, "Can I call you 'So' from now on?" I meant it to be the first two letters in Sora. She's just joking, she isn't really going to call him that as a nickname.


	5. A friendly greeting

Arigatoo reviewers! Your support makes my writing better .

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"Kai! Finally! Where the hell were you?" Tifa bombarded Kairi when she walked through the door. Kairi looked at her with a baffled expression.

"I was at school," Kairi answered cynically. Tifa glared at her.

"No duh, but I'm talking about afterward? We were getting worried…" Tifa said and sighed heavily.

"Why? Do I have to be home at an exact time?" Kairi asked a bit angrily, throwing her book bag on the couch.

"Kai, its dangerous out there. Vincent was worried that Aiden and his gang got you or something terrible happened," Tifa answered, giving Kairi a stern look.

"No, nothing happened to me. Besides, and I don't want to sound insensitive, but I'm an assassin, and I can take care of myself. Even if they did try to kidnap me, I could fend them off in time to get you guys," Kairi said, walking passed Tifa and into the kitchen to get something to eat.

"I know you could, but your huge ego is the problem," Tifa joked, pinching Kairi on the sides. Kairi laughed and kicked Tifa in the butt.

That was the thing with Kairi and Tifa. No matter how angry they would get with each other, they would always joke about it and make up. They were best friends, sisters, or whatever you would call two people who were inseparable.

"So I take it that Aunt Marlene is gone?" Kairi asked Tifa, biting into her apple. Tifa nodded.

"Yep. I think she went on another business trip," She responded, peeling her orange. It was very important that they all ate healthy foods if they were to keep their stealth, speed and physical appearance.

"She's always going on business trips," Kairi complained, relieved yet saddened at the same time.

"Well, we're going out again tonight…we may even meet Aiden's gang," Tifa said, excitement and mischievousness (A/N: believe it or not, that's a word, lol) burning in her eyes. Kairi felt her incitement and smirked.

"Do you really think we can take them?" Kairi asked, though she knew they could.

"Of course! We can defeat those losers any day!" Tifa said in triumph.

"I think your ego is the problem," Kairi giggled, and received an ambush of oranges and orange peels from Tifa.

Meanwhile, things weren't going so hot for Vincent. He was mulling over the letter he had received from Aiden just a few hours ago.

Dear Vincent, 

_Please meet my friends and I on the outskirts of town tonight. I do believe you know where I am hinting. Do not try to avoid us because we will hunt you down and it won't be a pretty reunion. Bring your assassins as well, because I do intend to fight. Yes, I will be blunt. Do not think that your rejection of my offer will go unnoticed, and whether you like it or not, someone will get hurt. _

_Be there,_

Aiden 

Vincent crumpled the note heatedly and threw across the room and it landed perfectly in the trashcan. He grabbed his hair and rocked back and forth on his bed, tapping his foot nervously.

He knew he couldn't get out of the situation, but he didn't want to anyway. He wanted to face Aiden; he wanted to show him how much stronger he had become, and how well trained his assassins were.

On the other hand however, he barely knew anything about Aiden's gang. He knew they were powerful, for Aiden was, and he must've taught them well. He also knew that Cyrus, Tifa and Kairi were quite skilled and potent themselves, but were they enough? He certainly hoped so.

Vincent walked downstairs and didn't see the threesome anywhere, so presumed they were in the basement. Making his way down the uneven steps, he heard the familiar noises and punches/kicks of his comrades.

There they were, Tifa and Kairi, dueling each other in what looked like karate type clothing. You see, assassins have to train somewhere…somewhere nobody could see them. Kairi's basement was a perfect place, because it was big and spacious, and a place people wouldn't really suspect. Of course, this wasn't the only place they trained. They often went to empty fields or lots, practicing all types of techniques, stopping only for small breaks then continuing the grueling but fun practices.

"Hey boss!" Cyrus shouted and running toward Vincent, tried tripping him by sliding downward and kicking him in the shins.

Vincent jumped up and flipped over Cyrus, turning around just in time to block one of his punches. They began to fight, not too seriously, but getting a few punches or kicks here and there.

After about 2 ½ hours of fighting, running and teaching, Vincent called their practice to a stop and informed them to meet him in the kitchen.

The assassins followed him up the crooked stairs and sat down, exhausted from their training. Vincent brought them all glasses of water and took a seat himself.

"What's up boss?" Cyrus asked, taking a huge sip of water.

"Well I'm sure you all know about tonight…" Vincent began, taking a sip himself.

"Are we gonna fight Aiden?" Kairi asked, excitement glimmering in her eyes. She wasn't quite sure as to why she was so eager to fight them; she supposed it was because they enraged her and she wanted to beat their brains out.

Vincent glared at Tifa, who averted her eyes, embarrassed, over to Cyrus. She wasn't exactly supposed to tell anybody about fighting Aiden, even if Vincent was going to anyway.

"Why yes we are Kai. In fact I received a warm invitation from him not to long ago. I hope you're prepared," he said, as though was a warning of some sort.

"Are you sure its safe boss? It could be a trap or something wicked of Aiden's…" Cyrus proposed. But Vincent shook his head and stood up.

"Aiden may be immoral, but he wouldn't do something like that. He wants to fight anyway, so what would be the harm of a trap?" With that, Vincent left, telling them to get dressed into their suits and to eat something quick.

They all stayed there for a few seconds, not quite sure what to think. They wanted to fight, but at the same time were frightened. At last, they all got up slowly and got dressed, Kairi rumbling with motivation. She was so excited that she was shaking as she put on her mask. Taking a big breath, Kairi walked out, and met with the rest of her team down the hallway.

"Are you ready?" Vincent asked once they all had come together. Tifa, Kairi and Cyrus nodded.

"Then we will go. I do wish I could tell you what to except, but truthfully I do not know. We cannot escape from this, we must fight," Vincent told them before exiting the house. The three assassins nodded again, and followed him. Immediately, as soon as they had all stepped outside, Vincent began to sprint, running past the trees as a blur. Kairi sped after him, Tifa and Cyrus close behind. She had absolutely no idea where she was going, so she hoped Vincent had a clue. After all, he had received the letter.

After about 15 or so minutes of pure running, Vincent began to slow down to a stop. Kairi halted as well and looked at her surroundings. They seemed to be on the very outskirts of town, where there was almost no civilization, or according to Kairi, deserted. They were near empty fields, similar to the ones she practiced on, but there were forest areas too. All around, trees seem to appear, secluded only by the envelopment of the bushes. It was dark, so it became harder for Kairi to see much else. There was some light coming from her town, but other than that there wasn't any other sort of illumination.

Kairi looked up at Vincent. He stood there, a hand on his dagger, looking like he was waiting for something. That's when it happened. Kairi sidestepped to avoid the whizzing switchblade that came flying at her head, and it spun off in the distance. Kairi glared in the direction it came from, and gasped quietly when she saw a figure of a man emerge from the shadows.

"Good, good. Looks like you've trained her well Vincent…" He said, finally in full view. Kairi presumed it was Aiden. She was surprised at the way he looked. First off, he was much younger than she had expected, and his hair was silver and short. His eyes resembled those of a cat, with a touch of wickedness to it. But what made him different was that he had no mask on. Kairi assumed he didn't mind the fact of no mask, since Vincent already knew how he looked.

Suddenly, a masked man flipped out of the trees and landed right next to Aiden. He had long blue hair with spiky bangs that covered his reddish eyes somewhat. No sooner had he landed that another masked guy jumped out. He held onto two daggers, and grinned sheepishly as he landed quietly at Aiden's other side, his spiky blonde hair glimmering in the moonlight. Again and again, as if it were a circus show, Aiden's gang came into sight. Two more men followed after the blonde boy, one being the boy Kairi had faced the other day, and the other being a man with a long black braid and a jagged scar on his cheek.

By the looks of it, Vincent's gang was outnumbered by one.

"I'm surprised you showed. It's not everybody who would come so willingly to their death," Aiden said.

"You speak so high but yet your not. My words will come from my blade," Vincent said coldly, taking out his knives. Aiden raised an eyebrow, and glanced at Kairi, then Tifa and finally Cyrus.

"Let us fight then," he said, smiling slightly.

Aiden ran at Vincent, who kicked upwards to hit his chin. Aiden jumped over him and started to run the opposite direction, as if to lead Vincent away from their assassins. Soon they were both out of sight.

Kairi scowled at the boy whom she had fought before. Then something caught her attention. He had no hood on like before, which exposed his spiky brown hair. It was so familiar…Sora?

Kairi mentally slapped herself. _Kairi, you're insane. No way in hell could that be Sora, _she reassured herself.

Then she saw the blonde guy having a silent conversation with the man with the long black braid, saw them nod to each other, then stare at Tifa. She couldn't tell if they were smiling because of their masks, but she could tell there was some mischievous look in their eyes. Then, as if on cue, the two assassins jumped at a startled looking Tifa.

Kairi and Cyrus immediately reacted and threw two daggers at the two men. They knocked them down in two clean swipes, but that just gave Tifa a big opening. She took advantage of it, and kicked both guys in the chest. They flipped backwards, landing on their feet, not even a glimpse of pain in their eyes. Of course, the boy with spiky brown hair and the man with long blue hair weren't just going to stand there. They both charged at the assassins, and if it weren't for their amazingly fast reflexes, Kairi and Cyrus would've suffered a blow to their heads. Kairi glanced at Cyrus, who was now fighting the man with long blue hair. Tifa unfortunately, had to fight two men, but Kairi believed she was strong and was more than capable to take on two.

Then Kairi focused on herself and glared at the boy with spiky brown hair.

He returned the gesture and then said softly,

"Let's go somewhere more…secluded."

He turned on one foot and disappeared amongst the shadows. Kairi chased after him; ready for any surprise attack he was planning to carry out. Surprisingly he stopped in a small clearing near a little creek with his back turned toward her.

Kairi instantly went for an attack, and brought down a powerful kick to his head. He expertly dodged it, and grabbing her foot, he twisted it, making her revolve once or twice. Kairi cringed, but planted her hands on the ground and kicked him in the chest. He stumbled backwards, but regained his balance in no time. Kairi flipped back up onto both feet.

"Looks like I'll have to get serious," the boy said, fixing his gloves in an intimidating manner.

"Oh really? Give me your best shot," she replied, brushing her bangs out of her eyes.

He charged at her, and they both got into a fistfight. They mostly blocked punches that were thrown at one another, but finally the boy got a punch in. He had smacked her across the cheek, bruising her lip in the process. Kairi was thrown back, the bushes breaking her fall. It took her a second before she got up, and she could feel a trickle of warm blood dribble down her lip. Kairi ignored it and once again the two assassins flew at each other. An intense quarrel began between them, both wanting to kill each other so bad it made their blood burn. That's when the boy took out his knife and swiped it at Kairi, forming a straight cut below her eye. Kairi, furious, butterfly kicked his head, and trapping it between her two legs, she flipped onto her back and with amazing leg strength, threw him over her. He collided with a tree, and to Kairi's dismay, got up slowly.

"You, my friend, just made a big mistake," he said threateningly.

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Sorry that took awhile! Plz review!


	6. A confusing depart

How can I thank you enough, reviewers! I love you all! .

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A chilled wind stirred in the night, blowing loose leaves off the bare trees and carrying littered plastic bags in the streets to unknown destinations. Owls hooted and dogs barked at the noises the wind made. You would think that this was a nice little town , with no distractions. That is however, until you saw the menacing battles that were being fought on the very outskirts of the town.

Yes, that is where Kairi was, fighting a boy whom she barely knew…well she thought she barely knew.

"Oh did I? I think the only mistake made here is the fact you're still living," Kairi retorted after the boy had made his threatening warning. His eyes flickered with a small flame and once more he came at her. Kairi was more than ready and dodged his incoming kick by sliding out to middle splits. He snickered and literally slammed a foot on her back as if he was planning to walk on her. Kairi groaned in pain, but whacked his other ankle to make him fall over. Unfortunately he didn't, but he did step off of her. She got up and did a quick stretch of the arms before lurching at him again.

The fought for a long time, until they both were panting and leaning against trees for support. They both were bleeding, but not any fatal wounds had been cast upon either of them.

"I am going to kill you," the boy said between breaths. Kairi glared and pushed herself off the tree.

"I am not gonna die until you do," she said crossly, and threw a dagger at his head. He frowned as it hit the tree in which he had just been leaning on.

"We'll see about that," he whispered, and ran towards a tree. Kairi looked at him confused.

_What the hell is this guy doing? Why is he running towards a tree? _She thought, but she soon found out. He had used the tree for extra velocity and was speeding right at her. Kairi ran backwards as he threw a punch at her, and his fist smashed against the tree behind Kairi, just inches away from her head. He threw his other fist at her cheek, but she knocked it away. Using her free leg, Kairi aimed it at the boy's head, only getting it seized by his hand and ripping her away from the trunk. He swung her around by her leg, as if she was in a carousel, and let go after a few seconds, making her fly into the branches of a furry hierarchy. Kairi fell out of the tree and rolled onto the ground, her whole body stinging and aching.

"Had enough yet?" He sneered as Kairi got up painfully.

"What type of throw was that?" She yelled angrily. But instead of responding, he charged at her, this time with daggers in his hands. She whipped out her own as well, and a big "SLINCH!" sound was heard as the two blades crashed together. They fought again, with daggers this time, slicing at each other with hazardous swipes. Finally, the boy had knocked her down and was hovering over her, a knife in hand, as if waiting for the right moment to stab her head.

"It's over. I've won," he said with a hint of pity. Kairi didn't say anything, but glared a hateful glare. Without waiting any longer, he plunged the knife down, but cocked his head when he noticed he had missed his target. Kairi was now grinning, not like he could see it anyway, and kneed him in the stomach. Keeling over slightly, the boy backed away from her, pain now very visible in his features. Kairi didn't hesitate to lay more combos on his now subtle body, and did without regret. She uppercut his chin and whacked him in the abs and chest, and he soared to the roots of a tree, landing in an awkward position that made even Kairi cringe.

"Usually I would take pity on such miserable opponents, but you make me mad," Kairi said, cracking her knuckles and readying her in an attack position.

"And when I get mad at someone, I usually kill them."

The boy hadn't gotten up yet, but his head was, and he was looking at her. What surprised Kairi was that he wasn't glaring at her, or making any hateful gestures. He was just…looking. His eyes made her legs feel weak, and she soon found herself lost in them. That's when a dagger came whizzing at her and she just barely moved in time. It grazed her side and she instinctively covered it with her hand. Kairi looked around, for she wasn't exactly sure where it came from, because the boy was just scarcely getting up, and he couldn't of thrown it.

All of a sudden the same odd whistling sound that Kairi had heard a couple nights ago, rang through the forest. The boy, who was now on his feet, was stooped and listening, then took off in the same direction that they had come from.

"Hey! Where the hell do you think you're going?" Kairi yelled and ran after him. He was fast, and even though Kairi had done some pretty serious damage to him, he didn't seem to be suffering from it much. They reached the clearing in which the two groups of assassins had met, and she saw the boy darting over to a huge black portal, with swirling purple miasma flowing inside of it. The boy had run over to it and disappeared as soon as his foot reached the violet gas. Kairi stood there, staring at the peculiar portal that had suddenly appeared. She was in utter bewilderment, with confusion written all over her face.

That's when she noticed a man standing next to it with his arms crossed and chin held high to match his inflated ego. It was no other than the gang boss himself, Aiden. Kairi fumed with hatred and charged, flinging a knife at him and attempting to hit him with any body part available. He just raised his brow, smiled and turned into the portal, the knife vibrating as it hit the earth with durable force. With that last touch, the portal sparkled into nothingness, leaving only a small lavender cloud that soon dispersed by the bitter wind.

"DAMN HIM!" Kairi screamed, kneeling down and punching the ground. Kairi hated him with every fiber in her small body, with all the firepower she could muster.

"Don't beat yourself up Kai," Kairi heard Cyrus say. She twirled around and saw him, as well as Vincent and Tifa; they all looked rather beat up themselves.

Kairi felt like crying, not for any particular reason, but just because she was always so sad to see her friends like this. She hung her head as she slouched over to them, and soon found Tifa's arm around her shoulders comfortingly.

"Are you okay Kai?" Vincent asked, but did not look at her.

"Yeah, got a few cuts but he wasn't much," Kairi replied half-lying. Vincent then led the way back home, and if you saw the difference between their moods coming to the battle and departing from the battle, you would be surprised. They weren't going nearly as fast, and they didn't talk at all. Finally reaching Kairi's house, they entered it slowly and sat down, nobody saying anything for a few minutes.

"…I'm sorry," Vincent said, again looking at nobody but the soft carpet.

"No, boss," Kairi immediately responded. "You can't possibly be sorry! How is it your fault? This is what we live for!"

Tifa and Cyrus nodded in agreement. This seemed to cheer him up a bit and he convened to the eyes of his assassins. To his great surprise, he was met with grins and smiles, despite their wounds. Cyrus had blood stained on his arms and his eye was developing a mean looking bruise. He had a cut on his forehead most likely from a dagger, and he had dirt smeared on his blondish hair.

Tifa probably looked the least hurt, but you could tell that she suffered massive blows in the stomach area for when she bent over slightly, she always drew in her breath. She had gashes on her legs that were starting to bleed through her pants, but other than a tiny scrape on her cheek, she was okay.

"Well we better get some sleep. It's already past midnight," Vincent pointed at the clock and Kairi cursed loudly. She happened to have school the next day. Walking up the stairs sluggishly, the foursome reached the second floor and all took nice, warm showers before tucking their tired little selves in bed. Kairi smiled to herself as she cuddled in her balmy sheets, then opened her eyes slightly to stare at Tifa, who was also sleeping in Kairi's room.

"You alright, Teef?" Kairi asked while throwing her bloody mask to the other side of the room, since it had been strewn recklessly on the floor.

"Of course I am. Though taking on two wasn't exactly easy," Tifa responded, lightly fingering a band-aid that was placed on her arm. She gave Kairi a quick grin, then muttered a "goodnight," whilst turning to face the wall. Kairi smiled and she gave a small prayer to her parents.

What would you think of me now, mom? How would you feel if you knew what I was doing? Dad, you used to always say killing was a bad thing…but what if I'm killing for the right reason?

Kairi frowned at her thoughts and lightly drifted off to sleep, only a small disturbance lay in the back of her mind. Who was that boy she had fought, and where did the bizarre portal lead to?

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Buahaha! Yes, I know I ended in a annoying part, but I want my story to stretch out! Plz review!


	7. Innocence

THANK YOU! Sorry it kind of takes awhile to update, but it's not just my fault! Lol. Actually its because can't upload the chapter for a day or two, so it delays the progress. BUT I'M WORKING ON IT! Heh, thx again my lovely reviewers .

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Kairi woke up to the morning doves chirping outside her bedroom window. She blinked open her eyes dreamily, and turned over to stare at her clock, which read 7:00.

"Morning sleepy. I made breakfast," Tifa greeted her, and Kairi could hear the familiar voices of her comrades downstairs. Tifa exited the room while telling Kairi to get her butt down there because Vincent needed to talk to them. Kairi brought herself up, but found it very painful. Her stomach ached and her arms and legs were very sore. She also found her side stinging, and her camisole was saturated with dry blood in that spot.

Kairi managed to get out of bed and to the bathroom. She looked at herself, and she splashed her face with cold water. Her lip, she noticed, was swollen and cut, worse than the other day because she had not applied ice to it.

Kairi then walked downstairs in a rather cheerful mood, ignoring the pain that erupted whenever she turned or did something strenuous.

"Morning Kai," Cyrus saluted, eating what appeared to be waffles.

"How are you feeling?" Vincent asked.

"Pretty good," Kairi answered, pulling out a plate from her over-filled cupboard. She grabbed a fork and jabbed it into the mash of waffles that resembled a pot of boiled eggs.

"Well I really owe you all an explanation of what happened yesterday," Vincent began, all three of his assassins now surrounding him at the table.

"I actually don't know where to begin, seeing how the portal was so…unusual. I don't know much about it, just that it is used to transport certain people to different locations. Aiden must've utilized it for an easy escape for him and his men if things didn't turn out like he planned."

Kairi was fairly annoyed at this idea. _So they were running away like cowards? Those…chumps! _She thought.

"I know what you're thinking," Vincent continued, now looking more at Kairi then anyone else. "You think they are craven. Well they might be, but I have this feeling that Aiden only wanted to _test _our strength. I don't believe he knew the extent of our power."

"I'm gonna clobber those thick-headed brutes! The nerve—" Kairi hadn't realized she had pound her fist on the table and was standing up. Tifa was holding back a laugh of amusement and Cyrus and Vincent were smiling at her. They just adored how she responded, but were quite pleased to know she was angry at the thought. Kairi sat down sheepishly, and began chugging down a tall glass of 1 milk.

"Kai, you should get ready for school, its almost 7:30," Tifa told Kairi once she had finished breakfast.

"Yes, 'mom'," Kairi joked, rolling her eyes and jogging up the stairs. She skipped to her room and threw on a pair of worn down jeans and a black shirt. Then holding her chin with her hand, Kairi decided to top it off with a big gray sweater because she wanted to cover her arms since they were cut. Then scampering off to the bathroom, she examined her lip. She couldn't exactly cover it so she just left it exposed, hoping nobody would ask her how she got it.

Kairi placed a band-aid on the gash under her eye, and tied up her hair in a firm bun. Taking one last glance at herself in the mirror, Kairi flipped back down the stairs and grabbing her backpack, raced out the door.

"Ah, what a beautiful day," Kairi said sarcastically to herself. It was overcast, and the stormy clouds blanketed the sky, threatening the town with rain.

"You don't really mean that, do you?"

Kairi whipped around to find Sora's face just inches away from hers, with his one and only grin displayed on his lips.

"S-Sora," Kairi stammered, backing away a bit. That's when she noticed the fresh scars on Sora's face, and a bruise near his chin. He even had a bandage on his hand, which he tried to conceal, but Kairi saw it anyway.

"What happened to you?" Kairi asked as they began to walk. He laughed.

"If I told you, you'd laugh," he responded.

"No I won't. C'mon Sora, it you tell me, I'll tell you how I got this," Kairi pointed to her lip and he looked at it with a suspicious glare.

"I fell down the stairs," He said, now hiding his face, embarrassed.

"You…fell down the stairs?" Kairi repeated. She almost fell down with laughter, since she was so sure he was lying. Sora's face reddened.

"I'm serious! And I got all these scrapes because…my mom likes to chop vegetables and carelessly left knives at the bottom of the staircase and I fell onto them," He explained speedily.

"Likely story," Kairi laughed, while rolling her eyes. Sora glared at her.

"It really happened, Kai. If you're so sure, how did you hurt yourself?" He asked smugly.

"I was punched," Kairi stated, telling the truth. Sora's eyes narrowed.

"Punched? By who?" He asked, now both entering the torture chamber (a.k.a, school) and walking down the hallways to their first period class. Kairi sighed, not exactly sure how to lie about this one.

"My…brother! We had an argument and as you can see, it ended badly," she replied. A small gasp escaped Sora's lips as he took a seat in Math. Kairi smiled sheepishly, trying her best to sound positive yet trying to get him to buy her lie. But that wasn't the only thing on her mind. She was getting so suspicious of Sora now, first because the boy who worked for Aiden had very similar hair and eyes to those of Sora, and now the next day, he shows up with injuries. Plus, his lie was obviously not true, so what other way could he have hurt himself so?

The day went by slowly, as if mocking Kairi. She was very apprehensive now, yet fearful to even think that her friend was working for an assassin. That's when a light bulb appeared over Kairi's head. She had an idea.

It wasn't brilliant, but it was one way to prove if her theory was correct. During some period that Sora had with her, Kairi was going to punch him from behind. Yes, blatant I know, but she knew for a fact that any assassin, especially one from Aiden, could sense an attacker coming forth from the back. If he blocked her punch, she knew he was an assassin.

Kairi was so sure of her plan, that when 7th period came (they had that class together) she didn't hesitate at all. It was close to the end of the day when she approached him. He was minding his own business, writing notes even though other students were beginning to pack up. Taking a big breath, and hoping she was right, she threw a fast blow at his head.

Kairi gasped as her fist made contact with Sora's face. He had turned just in time to see her about to hit him, and she did. He flew out of his seat and was thrown down to the floor. All the students in the class, including the teacher, gasped at this sudden commotion. Kairi was standing there stunned, and Sora was sprawled on the ground, confused just the same.

"Holy crap!" Kairi finally yelled, jolting back to reality. "Sora! I-I'm so sorry! I didn't know what I was thinking!"

But Sora wasn't really listening to her. He was just trying to stop his nose from bleeding, which was in fact, bleeding rather profusely.

"Kairi! Detention!" Ms. Tamako, Kairi's 7th period teacher, shouted at her.

Kairi was feeling so guilty now, that detention sounded like a light punishment. She just couldn't believe how she was so wrong about Sora, and that her actions were now inexcusable. She had just hurt her already injured friend, for her dumbass idea that he might actually be an assassin for one of the deadliest killers known to man.

She went through detention pretty easily, since she was used to it, and got a lecture about bullying by her principal (even though she wasn't bullying Sora).

Kairi sighed as she pushed open the glass doors of her high school and walked down the steps that led down to the blacktop. Her mind was racing with thought about the past event that just took place. So Sora wasn't an assassin overall?

_Gosh Kairi, you're such an idiot! Thinking that innocent Sora was someone totally opposite? But it did seem suspicious, I mean seriously, all the clues added up! But a girl can be wrong…_Kairi's thoughts were suddenly interrupted as she bumped into someone.

"I'm so sorry," she apologized, and quickly sped past him. She just wanted to get home. Her day had gone just terrible; it took all the wrong turns and she made all the wrong assumptions and decisions. She mentally and physically slapped herself for her lame idea and walked home with regret and guilt in her gut.

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Sorry I took a while, my computer is being a butthead. The next chapter will hopefully be more interesting. Plz review!


	8. Aiden knows

Yay! 45 reviews! Thanks so much guys/gals!

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When Kairi got back to her house, dead silence greeted her like a shadowy wind. It was dark inside, not only because of the time, but of the gloomy weather that refused to go away.

Kairi looked around, but found no evidence of anybody being there.

"Tifa?" Kairi called, dropping her book bag on the ground and traveling into empty rooms while searching for her comrades.

"Vincent? Cyrus?" She called again, now a bit worried even though she knew she shouldn't be. "Where are you guys?"

No response. Again, the shadowy wind of silence greeted and swirled around her, fake and imaginary she knew, but she found it very…eerie. Finally Kairi gave up and plopped down in the family room couch.

She was thinking, not just about where her friends were, but what had happened at school. She half-laughed at herself for her stupidity, but half glowered at why she had been so wrong about Sora.

"He could've faked it…" Kairi thought aloud, but immediately contradicted herself by saying it was a reflex, not something you could voluntarily control.

Sighing, Kairi once again lifted herself up and exited the house, sitting down on the curb and staring across the street to the other houses. Some lights were on, and a few shadows could be seen, but other than that, the world seemed swallowed in all emptiness.

That's when Kairi heard an unfamiliar noise outlining itself in the middle of the street. Drops of rain began to fall from the darkened sky, but Kairi paid no mind to them and tried to focus on what was starting to take shape quickly in the street. She gasped when she saw what it was.

The exact same, or at least a replica of the purple portal was standing there, electrifying yet gassy looking. What made Kairi even more aghast was when she saw a man step out of it, hooded and cloaked to cover his features.

"Strange that he would leave you here alone," the man said, taking a few steps toward the now standing and confused looking Kairi. The voice was very familiar, and Kairi recognized it as Aiden's.

"What do you want?" She shouted at him, completely forgetting that she looked like a normal teenage girl. She didn't even take note on how he actually knew that she was the assassin that had battled his, the other night.

He laughed cruelly.

"I only want to talk…Kairi," he replied. Kairi's eyes widened at the mention of her name.

"How do you know me? Who the hell do you think you are?" Kairi yelled, frightened of him now.

"Who knew that you'd become a killer, I mean, you were such an innocent girl 6 years ago," he said, ignoring her questions, which really didn't help at all because now Kairi had more. But she didn't say anything, as if expecting him to say more.

Aiden raised his head a little, and his cold, sinister eyes made contact with Kairi's. Kairi shivered and raised her fists in an attack position.

"I don't know how you know so much about me, but I'll let my fists do the talking," Kairi spat, and if she had knives she would've thrown them at him. An amused smile danced upon Aiden's lips, but he didn't ready himself at all. The rain now showered upon them, splattering on their faces and dripping down their cheeks like tears. Kairi's gray sweater turned an even darker shade as the water soaked into it, making her uncomfortably itchy. Of course, if this had been a regular rainy day, she would've noticed and complained about her soaked clothes and wet hair that stuck to her face…but not today. No, Kairi paid no mind to the rain that blurred her vision, because her only focus was on Aiden.

She was confused as well, for she had no clue as to why Aiden knew about her name and her identity. Did he have a conversation with Vincent or something?

"You are so much like Vincent, Kairi. You have his techniques and even talk like that traitor. Its rather disgusting actually," Aiden continued, malice dripping off every word he said, but amazingly keeping his ominous smile. Kairi was filling up with hate like an oversized helium balloon after he said that.

"Shut up. You don't know anything! Vincent isn't a traitor just because he refused to join you and your dumbass friends. And it's not like this was for a good purpose, now was it? You just wanted to kill people for who knows what reason!" Kairi countered, clenching her teeth and barreling her fists again.

She didn't wait even a second for Aiden to reply because in that time, she was already flying at him. He blocked her punch and attempted to hit her in the stomach with his knee, but Kairi stepped on top of it and flipped backwards, trying to kick him a couple of times. Aiden easily avoided it, and as soon as Kairi landed on the ground, the two were at it again.

Again, Kairi tried to hit him, but he was just too fast. Suddenly, his leg came out of nowhere and kicked her in the side, hard. She flew down and landed on her back on the damp concrete. She rolled over and using her hands, got up slowly. She was bleeding, and she didn't figure out why until she saw a small dagger protruding from the heel of Aiden's shoe. Kairi glared.

"You dirty slime!" Kairi fumed, about to run at him again.

"Kai, don't!"

Kairi whipped around to find Tifa, Vincent and Cyrus jumping and running on rooftops, then landing perfectly next to her. Kairi sighed a breath of relief at her friend's sudden appearance, and Aiden glared at them.

"What do you want with her?" Vincent asked coldly, while Tifa inspected the wound in Kairi's side.

"We were chatting, Vincent," Aiden told him, smiling slightly. "But I'm afraid we must leave you know."

"We?" Cyrus asked but soon found out. Three more pairs of malicious eyes gleamed from within the portal as soon as Aiden turned around and began to walk towards it.

Tifa and Cyrus ran after him, but were soon shot back by knives that zoomed out from nowhere and almost hit them. With one last smile, Aiden and his comrades were swallowed up by the gassy portal, leaving absolutely no trace of them being there, behind.

The four assassins stood there in silence, the only noise being heard was the pounding of the rain on the rooftops. Without speaking, they all walked inside Kairi's house, and dried themselves off.

"What was that all about, Kai?" Tifa questioned when they were finally on speaking terms. Kairi shrugged.

"Dunno. He just appeared out of that weird portal thing…and where exactly were all you when this happened?" Kairi asked, eying her partners.

"We were fighting Aiden's gang," Vincent replied, popping into the conversation. Kairi sighed and walked up her stairs sluggishly. Tifa had applied bandages to Kairi's wound that Aiden had gladly given her, and she seemed to be suffering from it now, either that, or she just hadn't noticed the pain because she was blinded by fury. Just the thought of the jerk made her blood burn, and it took most of her self-control to stop from punching the wall inwards.

Nighttime came, and soon Kairi was cuddled up in bed. She didn't want to go to school because:

She didn't want to face Sora

She was just too tired

Those reasons just made Kairi even more exhausted, and she soon fell into a deep, dreamy sleep.

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I'm sorry I ended it there! But I must keep the story longer! Sorry it took a while as well. Plz review!


	9. Dejavu?

Don't worry! This chapter will be much better! Thx reviewers!

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"Okay! I'm up, I'm up!" Kairi shouted angrily for the fourth time, lugging herself out of bed and painfully jogging down the stairs. It wasn't just the gash she received yesterday, but more like the day before that…she was still sore from the fight with Aiden's assassin.

"Took you long enough," Tifa remarked as soon as Kairi appeared in the kitchen. Kairi rolled her eyes and stuck out her tongue, obtaining a hit in the side from Tifa's spatula.

"Get home as soon as you can," Vincent told Kairi before she left. She didn't bother asking why, because he never told her anyway. Saying a quick goodbye, she left for another "exciting" day at school.

The stormy weather hadn't dispersed from the day before, so as soon as Kairi stepped outside drops of rain ambushed her. Groaning, she walked to school, with no Sora running up to her from behind.

_He must really be mad…_Kairi thought glumly when she was sure he wasn't going to come. _I guess it really was a jerky thing of me to do._

As Kairi was about to turn into the big double doors of her school, she noticed something rather peculiar from the corner of her eye. Curiosity getting the better of her, Kairi sneaked around, and slyly made her way to the scene. There was a boy with spiky brown hair talking to a man taller than him, with a long black braid in an extensive dark alleyway.

"Sora!" Kairi whispered loudly to herself when she discovered who the boy was…. but who was the other man?

"What? I'm in school! You guys will have to do it without me," Kairi heard Sora exclaim.

"Sora, we need distractions, and don't forget what will happen if you don't help," The man replied. They whispered for a couple of minutes more, until the strange man nodded and jumped atop a roof and scurried off.

Kairi gasped quietly as Sora began to approach the area in which she was watching. She ran off as silent as possible from the vicinity, and ran through the doors of her school, desperate to get to class and act as if everything was normal. Her heart was beating twice as fast as she took a seat in Math, and recollected what had just happened. She just now realized whom the man was…he seemed familiar, but Kairi hadn't given it much thought.

_It has to be the man with the long black braid that worked for Aiden's gang…the one that teamed up with the spiky blonde guy and battled Tifa, _Kairi thought surely. _The way he looks is more than enough comparison, but the way he jumped on the roof is so…assassin like. Oh no! _ Kairi suddenly had a horrible thought of what the conversation might have meant.

_He must've been threatening Sora! 'And don't forget what will happen if you don't help.' The chump! What the hell is he trying to do with Sora?_

Kairi's chain of thought suddenly broke when Sora walked through the door. She stared at him as he took a seat, and she almost totally forgot that she had punched him the other day.

All during 1st period, Kairi's attention was stuck on Sora. She just couldn't help looking over her shoulder and watching if his habits changed at all…they didn't. One time he caught her eyes, and Kairi immediately turned around embarrassed. Little did she know a small smile was dancing upon Sora's lips, and he chuckled as he resumed his schoolwork.

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The bell rang for lunch and Kairi packed up. As she was loading junk into her locker and taking out more textbooks, a finger poked her shoulder. She turned and saw Sora's gleaming face. Kairi abruptly looked away and began to think frantically of what she should say.

"Uh, are you mad or something?" Sora asked, smiling as Kairi blushed.

"N-no! You should be mad! I mean, mad at me because of what I did yesterday!" Kairi responded in an almost shout. "I had no reason to punch you like that...I really am an idiot."

"I take that as an apology then?" Sora joked, trying to get humor in the air again.

"Uh, yeah, sure," she said, slamming her locker door shut. Then she looked up at him, and nearly fainted. She really did find him cute, and the grin on his face just made him cuter.

"You think I'm attractive, don't you?" Sora sniggered as they began to walk to the lunch tables. Kairi blushed furiously.

"What? Wishful thinking!" She laughed giving him a light shove.

"Hey! You even admitted you liked me Kai, so you must find me good looking," He retorted hotly. Kairi burst into laughter at his increasing ego, and Sora shoved her back, but he couldn't help laughing with her. Little did she know he found her attractive as well.

Kairi was having such a great day with Sora, that when the end of school came, she hardly remembered ever being an assassin. She even forgot about Sora's conversation with the worker of Aiden's whose name she did not know.

But it all came back to her as she started to walk home. Sora wasn't walking with her, because he had said he had to talk with his friend, whom Kairi knew too well was the guy who worked for Aiden. She knew that she should have followed him, in case she needed to beat up the man with the braid, but she just found it morally wrong, so she stopped herself.

"I'm home!" Kairi yelled as she entered her residence. She looked around, and discovered nobody was there but her. She didn't worry too much, flinging her book bag on the couch as usual and flopping onto some fluffy pillows. That's when she noticed something out of the ordinary. Being an assassin, Kairi could tell when there was an eerie presence near her, and she cautiously stood up. At this moment, she knew something was terribly wrong.

"Vince? Tifa!" Kairi called out, but to her dismay, there came no answer. She stiffened, and carefully ascended the stairs, dejavu hitting her like an ice pack. Hadn't she gone through this before? 6 years ago? Kairi's heart beat faster and faster as she turned the corner and sniffed the air. It smelled like blood.

"Damn," Kairi cursed as she searched the rooms, including her own, for the object that emanated the bloody scent. That's when she saw a torn piece of red cape strewn recklessly on the floor in the middle of the hallway. It was definitely that of Vincent's, and she immediately broke into a run around her house, searching feverishly for some sign of her boss. She found blood splotches or smears here and there on the walls or floors, but she found no dead body or moaning victims. It was very obvious to Kairi that Vincent had been attacked, but where did that leave Cyrus and Tifa?

_They should be here! Where could they possibly be when Vincent is in trouble! _Kairi thought nervously, eyes brimming with worried tears. Wiping them away, she decided to take action, after all, this is what Vincent would want her to do, and she would do anything to find him.

Rushing up the stairs, Kairi changed into her uniform hurriedly, tying her mask with extreme speed and whipping out her hair tie, letting her hair cascade down her cheeks and eyes. She positioned her black fighting gloves on her hands, and placed her daggers by her side. She ran into the hallway and grabbed the piece of torn cloth that had been a part of Vincent's attire, and tucked it into her belt. She wasn't exactly sure why she did that, after all it was just a scrap of bloody thread particles, but she somehow thought it would give her good luck, and it was through distant relation, part of Vincent.

Kairi jumped through her window and ran sneakily through houses. Nothing like this had ever happened to her before, so she didn't even know where to start looking. He could be anywhere! Jumping on top of a old worn down market, Kairi got a good view of her town, her eyes searching anxiously for a sign of her friends, Aiden, or some sort of fight. She lived in a small town, so they couldn't be too far away, right?

Kairi searched as far as her eyes could see, and that was quite a distance, but still found no sign of movement, so she decided to move.

Jumping down, she made her way through dark alleyways, until she reached the outskirts of town. Another harsh wind blew her hair into her eyes, circling around her and making her very chilled and uncomfortable; it began to rain again. The wind carried the droplets of water in some odd direction, some landing on Kairi's pale cheeks and pallid suit.

All of a sudden, the bushes rustled behind her, and Kairi quickly turned around to meet some sort of figure charging at her. She didn't have much of a time to react, so she met him with her fists, although it didn't seem like he was trying to attack her. Kairi fell down, the figure falling down on top, his blonde hair brushing her face.

"Cyrus!" Kairi exclaimed, overjoyed that she had found at least one of her comrades. He looked up at her sheepishly, and quickly got up, giving her a helping hand, which Kairi took gratefully.

"Sorry 'bout that Kai. Ya see, I kinda ran into some—"

"Trouble?" Finished a voice not to far away from Cyrus. Both assassins glared in the direction it came from, and saw three shapes emerge from the very depths of the shadows that the trees produced. Of course, it was none other than the assassins of Aiden, the famous black braid dude, the spiky blonde hair dude, and the spiky brown hair dude.

"Sora?" Kairi whispered to herself silently, almost immediately assuming the assassin was her friend. She shook her head, rapidly getting the queer thought out of her system.

"Heh, looks like your outnumbered," glowered the guy with spiky blonde hair.

"It wouldn't matter if it were 10 to 2. We'd still kick your lame asses," Kairi shot back, already burning with hate for them. The three enemies grinned non-visible smiles, and laughed rudely.

"Let's see if your skills are as great as your ego," scoffed the man with the black braid, him and his companions readying themselves for an attack. Kairi's eyes flicked over to Cyrus, who nodded his head discretely and the two assassins ran at the men. Kairi ended up charging at the boy that resembled Sora, and Cyrus at the other two. Kairi brought down a powerful kick to start off the intense battle, the boy blocking it with his two arms, forcing her to flip backwards.

As soon as Kairi's feet hit the ground, the boy was coming at her again, and she didn't have much time to react, so she blocked his thrown punches aimlessly. Suddenly, an immense amount of pressure was felt in her foot, and she found that he had stomped on it…hard. Not expecting this, she almost tripped, but not before whapping the boy upside the head, although he did managed to trip Kairi, and she fell down on her back. Unexpectedly, a dagger came whizzing at her head, and she barely moved in time, the weapon hitting the ground with a sharp thud.

Kairi immediately looked fiercely over to the man who threw it, who happened to be the man with the black braid. His eyes gleamed mischievously, but it didn't last long, for Cyrus came in and high kicked him in the temple. Laughing, Kairi got up, only to be knocked down again by the brown hair kid's foot. She rolled over as he threw another punch, crushing the ground with tremendous force. Flipping back up on her feet, she whipped out her knife and threw it at him, following it as it flew at the boy. Astonishingly he wasn't totally prepared, and Kairi perceived it grazed his side, for it started to bleed mildly.

Kairi slid on her knees and impelled her leg out, attempting a low circle kick to hit him in the knees. He jumped to avoid it, in the process giving Kairi an advantage. Seizing this opportunity, she quickly recovered ground, and ran at him with speed like no other, jabbing him in the chest and knocking him down by punting his legs. He was once again on the ground, and Kairi smirked in victory.

This joyous moment did not last long, for in a sudden shift, a sharp and intense pain shot through her leg. She looked down and found a dagger resting in her thigh, and she moaned in pain. The boy was starting to get up now, and by looking at her state, she swore he was smiling. He did not throw it, for it was plainly obvious that the spiky blonde hair chap threw it. He had escaped from his battle with Cyrus and was leaning against a tree, his hand in the same position as it would be if he were throwing something. This did not last long either, and he was soon caught up in another combat with braid dude and Cyrus.

Kairi yanked out the protruding blade from her leg and cringing, tossed it to the side. During this time however, the boy had already gotten up, and was running to her. Not prepared at all, he punched her across the face, and she was thrown backwards. Without hesitating, he leaned over her, and grabbing her collar, punched her again. Kairi's cheeks were burning, and before he could punch another time, she slid out from under him. It was a very difficult task picking herself up, but she managed. She wanted to kill the boy…badly. But she couldn't help thinking of where Vincent had gone, and where the hell Tifa could be. Yes, there were only three of Aiden's assassins, so Tifa was probably battling the fourth, but that left Vincent and Aiden alone.

"Where is he? Where did your boss take mine?" Kairi demanded, resting on one knee.

"Fool, he's probably dead by now…" the boy replied, taking a couple of dangerous steps closer to Kairi. "You are pathetic to even imagine your boss would still be alive after fighting us."

"You're wrong! I'll kill you!" Kairi yelled angrily, refusing to believe Vincent was hurting, or maybe even dead. The boy laughed.

"Not if I kill you first."

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Whew! Another chapter complete, many more to go! Plz review!


	10. I wonder

Here I go again, writing a brand new chapter! Let's hope its good! Lol. Thanks a bunch reviewers!

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Kairi had completely forgotten that Aiden's assassin had any resemblance to Sora, for his words were cold and heartless, and Sora's where genuine and happy, always full of humor and enthusiasm. All traces of good-natured Sora were gone…replaced by vicious and angry thoughts.

"What's the matter?" The boy sneered, approaching her slowly. Kairi used her hands to push herself up, and took a couple of steps backwards.

"I do wish you could've brought a better fight, but what can I expect from a worker of Vincent's? Weakness and stupidity," he scoffed, continuing his surly walk towards her. Kairi once again stumbled away from him; she wasn't afraid, but she knew her body couldn't take much more of this.

"Scared? Ha! Don't worry, it'll all be over soon," he said curtly, seizing his dagger from behind. Kairi couldn't take any more of his insults alongside his attacks, so she ran at him. He immediately reacted by jabbing her head with his knife, but she was so swift that she dodged it and rolled around him, acquiring a hit in his abdomen. He was very surprised at her sudden innovation, for she was just on the ground and bleeding.

Kairi on the other hand, was panting and clutching her leg, applying pressure to the wound to impede the pouring blood. She didn't know how well Cyrus was doing against the other two assassins, but she prayed he would hold on a bit longer until she could finish her own battle.

"I guess I underestimated you," he said angrily, advancing on her once again. Kairi raised an eyebrow.

"I guess you did," she replied briskly, brushing her hair off her shoulder in an irritating way. Obviously it got him much more enraged than she thought, for he was already running at her and down swinging a kick on her head. She flipped to the side, and yet again finding herself in bloody chaos with him.

After what seemed like an eternity, he finally kicked her in the chest, and she went flying to the ground. She was really in pain now, and she couldn't do anything about it. She tried to stand up, but her bleeding and shaking forced her down on to the damp earth. Her opponent was suffering from damage as well, but at least he could bring himself to an upright position.

Suddenly, a blanket of red cloth sprouted from the sky and draped around Kairi's body as if shading her from the outside world. She could feel strong but gentle hands clasp her shoulders and pick her up, removing her from her ailing state. She heard shouts, the pounding of running feet, and the clouds dispense their tears of rain, and soon the only sound being heeded to was the noise the wind makes when one is running at a fairly quick pace.

Kairi knew she was being carried, and by whom she did not know. As soon as she saw the familiar outline of her house, relief washed over her like a relaxing wave, and she sighed contently. Her savior, who Kairi finally recognized as Vincent, opened the door and walked over to her couch in which he deposited her into.

Kairi moaned in pain as her leg hit the arm of the sofa, but forgot everything as soon as she heard Vincent gasp for breath. Kairi shot up from her lazy position on the couch and rushed over to her boss who was sitting on an armchair clutching his stomach.

"Boss! What's the matter!" She screamed at him, trying to get a look at what was hurting him.

"Don't…worry…about me," he muttered, cringing as he spoke. Again, he gasped, and Kairi did the same when she saw fresh red blood pour out between Vincent's fingers.

"Vince! Just hold on! I'll get Tifa!" Kairi shouted, jumping up and running to the door, ignoring the pain the erupted in just about every part of her body. But Kairi didn't have to search for her comrades, because at the moment, Tifa and Cyrus had run through the back door and were already crouching over Vincent.

"Kai!" Tifa called, her eyes still glued on her boss. "Get me some bandages and antiseptic!"

Kairi didn't hesitate; she didn't even bother asking where Tifa had been this whole time, or how she and Cyrus managed to escape from Aiden's gang. She didn't ask what was hurting Vincent, or what happened between him and Aiden, all she did was fetch the items that Tifa ordered her to get.

As soon as she got the medicine and bandages, she rushed back over to Tifa and handed them to her. As Tifa worked with Vincent's wound, Kairi got a glimpse of what it was, and she winced as she saw it.

It was a pretty disgusting sight; blood was everywhere and there were bloody knives that had been extracted from Vincent's abdomen. Kairi admired how well Vincent was doing, he wasn't making much noise…in fact he wasn't making any noise at all. His eyes were closed and he was breathing softly, and Tifa was just about done wrapping him up. Cyrus carefully picked his boss up and gently placed him on the velvet couch, backing away as he did so.

Tifa and Kairi got a blanket for him and laid it over him and a delicate manner, both older teens trying to act mature and not cry. But Kairi wasn't at all willing to hold back her feelings and she began to sob, grabbing on to her friends and just spilling out her tears. Cyrus and Tifa began to waver, then joined in the melancholy atmosphere and cried along with Kairi. All three assassins weren't sure whether their boss was going to live through this, for he had lost a great deal of blood and his breathing was becoming sharper and shorter every minute.

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It was about 2:00 in the morning, and Kairi still hadn't fallen asleep. She had her head leaned against the couch and she was watching Vincent sleep. She wasn't sure why, but she felt as if he wasn't safe and needed protecting.

Kairi's eyes drooped as she fiddled with the bandage that Tifa had situated around Kairi's thigh. She was extremely tired, and would've fallen asleep if she hadn't heard the phone ring. Curious, Kairi raised her idle body and retrieved her phone, clicking the "talk" button as she did so.

"Hello?" She asked quietly, making sure she didn't wake her sleeping boss.

Silence.

"Hello?" She asked again, a bit louder this time.

"Do you know what time it is?" The person on the other line asked rather maliciously. Kairi shivered as he spoke, for his voice was cold and sinister…rather familiar actually.

"Um…its about 2:30 AM sir…" She replied awkwardly. The man on the other line laughed.

"Of course, you were always single minded, weren't you Kairi?" He asked. Kairi jumped as she heard her name, finally recognizing who the anonymous caller was.

"Aiden," She spat, filling up with hate like she always did whenever the menacing gang leader was around. Aiden laughed again, but louder this time.

"You're smarter than you sound," Aiden mocked, making Kairi sizzle with rage under his flaming attitude.

"I'm going to find you," Kairi threatened, squeezing the phone so hard that she was sure it was going to break. "And when I do, I'll make sure you suffer just as my boss has suffered."

Getting the last word, Kairi blatantly hung up, satisfied with her last response. She didn't give a damn about what he had called for, all she wanted to do was just that: kill him.

Of course, she didn't know where to find Aiden or his comrades, so she was a bit stuck there, but she was plenty sure that they would meet again soon. Tossing the cordless phone on the counter, she decided she had had enough Vincent watching for the night, and ascended the stairs, yawning and stretching her sore limbs.

"Sleep well, 'kay Vince?" She told Vincent's resting form. Of course she received no response, but she smiled anyway, entering her bedroom and flopping onto her welcoming bed.

_I wonder what Sora would think…if I told him I'm an assassin, _Kairi thought quizzically, closing her eyes and slowly drifting off to sleep.

I wonder if he'd still trust me…would we still be friends? 

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Sorry that took a long time! I'm just busy with school and what not, so I hope you enjoyed this chapter!


	11. Sora!

My goal is to get at least 5 reviews per chapter, so plz review! Thx to all the people who did 

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When Kairi awoke, the stillness of her house met her in the most horrid way possible…silence. Kairi hated silence, so she quickly pulled off her sheets and lunged her way down the stairs. She would've gone quietly, to not wake Vincent, but there was just one problem: Vincent was not there.

Kairi panicked, and ran around desperately, but to her dismay she found no trace of her boss there. The blanket that had been covering him the night before was strewn on the floor pathetically, as though it had been slaughtered, and the pillows were smooched and wrinkles were everywhere. There were even some black pieces of hair still lying on the pillow that obviously came off of Vincent's head.

"Huh?" Kairi had suddenly come aware of a torn piece of white paper taped onto her counter. She dashed over to it, ripped it off her counter and held it closely to her face. It read:

_Dear Kai,_

_Before you start worrying, Vincent is perfectly fine. Cyrus and I brought him over to my place because Aiden doesn't know where we live, so it's much safer here. We will return soon, or at least I will, and remember, if there's a problem, you need to come to us._

_Love,_

_Tifa_

"Must they always leave me?" Kairi whined and crinkled up the neatly written note. Sighing, she walked sluggishly into her kitchen, throwing away the letter and grabbing a box of Coco Puffs.

DING DONG 

"Holy…!" Kairi cursed, jumping out of her seat in surprise. Doorbells always did surprise her, and it was rather unusual to have a visitor show up so early in the morning. Groaning, Kairi walked over to the nicely painted door (her aunt was obsessed with painting things) and hauled it open, not bothering to look through the window to see who it was.

"Hi Kai!" Sora greeted, his beaming face meeting her shocked one.

"Oh, Sora!" Kairi responded, quickly hiding whatever visible cuts she could. Sora however, leaned in closer, his face only inches away from her as he surveyed her cuts and bruises. Kairi got a bit uncomfortable, because she was however, just in long pajama pants and a white t-shirt.

"What happened to you?" Sora asked, raising his eyebrows and entering Kairi's house through the door that she had opened widely.

"I could ask you the same thing," Kairi replied smugly, taking note on his wounds as well. Sora looked down at himself, suddenly embarrassed, and he looked away.

"Um, why do you have your backpack?" Kairi questioned, trying to change the mood of the atmosphere.

"We have school today Kai…did you forget?" Sora answered, laughing as Kairi gasped and covered her mouth with her hand.

"SHIT!" Kairi yelled, whirling around and jogging up the stairs. Well, she would've, if Sora hadn't grabbed her wrist and prevented any further movement.

"Kai, I was kidding!" Sora sniggered, letting go of her hand so he could stop himself from falling down in laughter. Kairi stood there, a bit stunned, trying to digest the prank that she had fallen for.

"Sora, you…!" Kairi grinned, grabbing a nearby pillow and smacking her friend on the head. Sora faked girly screams as Kairi pegged him with the soft pillow, both of them laughing despite whatever pain erupted at their jerky movements.

"Okay, so if school's not the reason…" Kairi began once the two teens were settled down, "then why did you come over here?"

Sora grinned.

"Well, I need help on homework," he said simply, taking out binders from his backpack.

"Oh really?" Kairi asked, raising an eyebrow and propping her elbow upon the arm of her sofa. "Ha! I totally doubt it…you wouldn't come to me for that sort of help. Are you sure there isn't a…_different_ reason you came here?"

Sora eyed her suspiciously, then dropped his binders and turned around, facing her directly.

"Should there be?" he questioned. Kairi shrugged and jumped off the couch in which she had been sitting on and ran over to the door and pulled it open once again.

"Let's go somewhere else, its so boring in here," Kairi said splashily, her randomness obviously getting the better of her as she grabbed a gray sweater and threw it on.

"Uh, where?" Sora asked, lazily raising himself up and striding over to where Kairi was. Once again she grinned and shrugged and bounded off into the wonderful oblivion of the world.

The two happy teens ambled off while talking aimlessly about life, school and other things that 16 year olds talk about. Kairi discovered that she and her friend had more in common then she had believed; they both loved to play video games and were obsessed with gloves. Not realizing where they were going, Kairi and Sora ended up near an old park, which appeared more of a rusty junkyard, but a park nonetheless.

Kairi smiled as they approached the steel playground and she immediately ran over to the swings and hopped on to one of them. Sora chuckled and followed her, taking the swing next to her and propelling himself high in the air.

"Ah, I remember this park. I used to call it 'furui to kitanai' because it was so ancient. I'm surprised they haven't torn it down yet…it's been here ever since I was little…" Kairi reminisced, swinging herself gently on the squeaking seat.

"Yeah…its rather a mess isn't it?" Sora agreed. Kairi suddenly turned to him, impulsively remembering a question she had always wanted to ask him.

"Are you new to this place? It's kind of a late question…but I'm pretty sure that you weren't here last year. Did you move or something?" Kairi asked, hair blowing in the gentle breeze and the light rain battering her cheeks.

Sora nodded.

"Yeah. I moved because…well, lets just say there were a lot of problems where I used to live," he replied, a hint of remorse and anger in his voice.

"What sort of problems?" Kairi asked, probing deeper. Sora sighed as he came to a gradual halt in his gentle swinging, obviously thinking of how to answer Kairi's simple question.

"Oh you know…outcasts, scandals, robbery, criminals…murder," Sora spat the last word with such anger and disgust that Kairi assumed that someone close to him had been killed.

"Oh…" Kairi said softly, suddenly remembering how her parents were brutally murdered. "I, um…I'm sorry."

Sora's head shot up as he heard his friend apologize.

"No really, its not that bad. I mean, I'm having a fantastic time here…I have family, friends and a good life. I'm glad I left," Sora explained, fingering the steel ropes that held up the seat of the swing.

"Hey, why don't we go see a movie or something? I'll pay," Kairi suggested, jumping of the swing and smiling at Sora; he looked rather shocked at her sudden change in mood.

"A m-movie?" He repeated, evidently getting the wrong idea. Kairi laughed and yanked him off his seat so he was standing next to her.

"Not like a date, silly. I just mean like an entertaining movie since we're bored and it's starting to rain," Kairi clarified while pointing to the sky. Sora blushed a little and agreed to Kairi's idea.

So that's how their day went. The two friends watched the most exciting movie that was showing at the small movie theater, drank ices and ate popcorn. After that they went over to Sora's house and played his x-box 360, and Kairi discovered that nobody was usually home at his house either…which was strangely similar to life at her domain as well.

Finally it came time when Kairi needed to get home; she had almost completely forgotten about Vincent or her assassin life in which she needed to get back to now. It was also getting dark and heavier rain began to fall, so Sora accompanied her walk back to her house.

However, on their short walk back, forming in the middle of the street was a purple portal, and Kairi froze when she saw it. Sora noticed what she was staring at and immediately halted when his eyes met the transportation device.

"What do you suppose it is?" Sora asked, his voice unusually high and pitchy. It took awhile for Kairi to answer, but she finally shook her head.

"I don't know…" She muttered, but knowing perfectly well what it was. Nobody was walking out of the portal thankfully, so that relieved Kairi a little and she grabbed Sora's arm and tugged him to keep walking with her. Ignoring the swirling and electrifying noise was difficult for the both of them, but they finally reached Kairi's house without much distraction.

"Uh, thanks for walking me home and…for hanging out with me today," Kairi said, smiling at her friend. He grinned back at her and turned around to start leaving.

"Oh Sora? Sorry for making you walk back in the rain…" Kairi apologized.

"No problem. See you at school Kai," He replied cheerfully. With one more wave Kairi entered her house, admiring Sora's high spirits and reminiscing over the days events. Nevertheless she didn't forget about the portal she saw in the streets, which can only mean one thing: trouble. She wasn't expecting anybody to be home, nor she expected anybody to come, so she jogged up the stairs, determined to stop whatever Aiden was planning to do.

Not exactly sure why, Kairi looked out her window to see if Sora had left yet and gasped at what she saw.

Sora was talking, or what appeared to be moving his lips, to the portal, though Kairi could not see whom he was talking to, or if the person he was speaking with was obscured by the shadows and rain. Kairi's heart began to beat ten times faster as she continued to watch. Then she saw her friend nod his head and enter the ghastly portal, reaching in and entering arms first. Kairi let out a gasp and grabbed the windowpane with such force that her hands turned an abnormal shade of white.

"SORA!"

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Whew! That took forever, didn't it? Well I hope this chapter was better than the last one, and I do apologize for not updating earlier. I know it takes me awhile, but plz keep reviewing! I love all your support 


	12. Unfortunate events

Thank you for the reviews everybody! Don't worry, your going to get your times worth in this chapter! Hehehehe. Lol XD

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Kairi stared out the window as if she had just witnessed an atrocious murder; her complexion pale and legs shaking. Forcing herself to turn around, Kairi erratically changed into her black attire, jogging down the steps as she whipped on her mask. She knew she had to chase after Sora, no doubt about it, but she sure felt disturbed having to do something like this.

Opening the door, Kairi dashed over to the portal, but almost came to a screeching halt before jumping into it. It looked menacing, erected in the middle of the street and swirling with violet miasma. She knew that the more reasonable thing to do was go fetch her comrades, but a little help from her conscious, pride and curiosity persuaded her to dive in.

The sensations that Kairi felt were overwhelming as she plummeted into the ghastly portal, every one of them having innumerable descriptions. She felt soothed, but wet, as if she had jumped into purple water. This did not last long however, for Kairi soon felt ground underneath her feet once again, the wet yet gentle sensation now gone, replaced by an anxious, threatening stiffness in the air.

As Kairi looked around, she found herself on a large wooden porch atop a rather large hill. Looking down, she figured she could just jump off and be at the outskirts of her town. Perplexed but relieved a little, Kairi turned around to find herself staring at a wooden house, to which the porch was attached to.

"Sora?" Kairi called, immediately regretting it afterward. _Kairi, you dummy! Remember, he doesn't know you're an assassin, so don't yell anything! Besides, Aiden could be anywhere—_

Kairi's thoughts were cut off by a yell, then following it were some painful grunts. At first she thought it came from down bellow, maybe a small fight taking place on the suburbs of town. However, as she listened closer, she realized the noises were coming from _inside _the odd house. Heart beating faster than she could count, Kairi quickly found the door that led to the interior of the house and pulled it open. The house was dull, rather normal looking actually, but Kairi didn't pay much mind to it as she listened hard for more groans.

Traversing through the house, Kairi discovered it had many rooms, some large, some small, and for every room she journeyed through, she became more and more confused as to what type of place it was. Finally, she found the source of the noise: a door. Well, a door that led into a room obviously, but as Kairi hurried to open it, she found that she couldn't for it was shut and strongly locked. She pushed and pulled, but to her luck she could not.

"DIE!"

Kairi immediately stopped her ruckus as she heard that word…that cold, heartless word. Shaking once again, Kairi tried twice as hard to get the door to move open, but it just was more stubborn than ever, and didn't budge.

Dreadful thoughts started to fill the poor girl's head as she furiously struggled to open the door, thoughts of who the people were inside the room in which she was so desperately attempting to get into. One thought she had was that it was Sora, which was quite reasonable, but she refused to believe it. Then she came across the idea it was her boss, Tifa and Cyrus. That was also reasonable, in fact, more realistic, but she got that thought out of her head quickly, comforting herself by saying that Tifa and Cyrus were doing a good job in protecting Vincent. It would be just horrible if Vincent were in there…he was so wounded that he could barely stand.

"Aw, shit," Kairi cursed, backing away from the heavily locked door, completely fed up with the whole scheme.

Running at full speed, Kairi back flipped, hitting the door with extreme force. Smirking as she heard a click radiate from the lock, Kairi simply punched the handle once again and the door opened easily. Laughing at how she had not thought of that before, she ran through, but immediately afterward wished she hadn't.

First off, let me just tell you how the room looked. It was nothing like Kairi had ever seen before, with two curving stairways at the sides, and a large floor area in the middle. Near the top was a balcony looking thing in which the two staircases led up to. It was apparent that there were vibrant colors etched into this panorama, however it was covered up with dust and other crud that Kairi really didn't pay attention to because her focus was on the man who had shouted the bloody, hateful word.

Aiden almost laughed with surprise and joy as he saw Kairi enter the room, her eyes wide with fear and anger.

"Well look who's just in time to watch her favorite man die!" Aiden laughed cruelly, his voice more malicious and thunderous than ever. Kairi was at first confused as to what her enemy was talking about until she saw the man that was half dragging on the ground and collar grasped by Aiden's white hand.

"Vincent!" Kairi screamed, sprinting over to the two bosses with a dagger raised and ready to strike Aiden's head. Oh how she would have loved to do that, if not for the assassin that prevented her from harming him. It was none other than the boy who looked strangely identical to Sora who jumped out of the shadows and blocked her, forcing her to bounce back to the ground.

"Out of my way," Kairi growled.

"Never," the boy responded with almost the same ferocity as Kairi.

"No! Let her watch," Aiden cackled again, raising his own knife which I might add, was very large, at least three times the size of Kairi's, to Vincent's chest. Not expecting this, the boy zipped around Kairi and bound her hands to her back while pinning her legs down so she could not run and attack Aiden, but watch what dreadful thing he was going to do next. Kairi thrashed like a wild animal, struggling to escape her foe's grasp, but it was no use for he had her pinned down extremely well.

"Kai…"

Kairi immediately stopped thrashing around as she heard her boss mutter her name. Looking up to him she could only feel pity and anger at the current state he was in. He looked…well, basically dead already, for he was bleeding and cut all over the place.

"Need to say any more goodbye's? Sorry to tell you, but I'm running a short program here, and there isn't all the time in the world," Aiden said, leering at Vincent slightly.

"Let him go! I'll kill you, you bastard!" Kairi screamed, trying once again to free herself from the assassin's grip.

Aiden seemed to find this very funny, for he started to laugh his horrible, cruel laugh that sounded even more horrible in this room because it echoed.

"As you wish," Aiden sneered, and he plunged the knife into Vincent's chest.

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"Good job!" Vincent applauded as the dagger hit the very center of the target. Kairi gave her boss a big smile as she retrieved the knife she had just thrown. It was a nice day, a fine day to go train in the middle of the fields.

"_Nu-uh. I can do better than that," Tifa smirked, and she lined up five different daggers between her fingers. Putting on a serious face (that Kairi always thought looked so cool) she twirled around, all the while the daggers spitting out of her graceful throws and stabbing the target dead center. _

"_Nice," Cyrus commented. Kairi snorted, and the rest of the day, the two females were competing against one another. Kairi knew she wasn't nearly as good as Tifa, for she was only in 8th grade right now and Tifa was 17._

_The assassins called it a day, and made their way back home, Tifa and Cyrus racing each other back to the house, leaving Kairi and Vincent to carry on their own conversation._

"_So when are we going to fight the bad guys?" Kairi asked, practicing her punches as she continued to walk._

"_Soon," Vincent replied. Kairi groaned._

"_That's what you said last time! How soon is 'soon'?" She whined. Vincent laughed and gave Kairi a noggie._

"_You're a natural assassin, huh Kai?" Vincent grinned as they neared Kairi's home. Kairi beamed up at him._

"_You really think so?" She asked happily, awfully proud of that statement. Vincent nodded._

"_Of course."_

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Kairi screamed as soon as the knife made contact with Vincent's chest, and for some reason she found the strength to push herself away from the assassin and rush over to her boss. She picked him up and rested his head on her knee, tears already forming in her pale eyes.

"Vince…." Kairi mumbled while shaking him. "Vince…VINCENT!"

It was then when Kairi broke down in tears and buried her face in her boss's cloak, afraid to believe that this was all real. She had only felt this much rage, sorrow and regret one time before, when she had found her dead parents in her house.

"No…no," Kairi muttered, shaking and crying. Then she threw her head back and let out a strangled cry, all the while Aiden and the other assassin watching in amusement.

"I trust you to take care of her. She'll be easy, she's in so much grief she can't think straight," Aiden told the boy, and with a nod he exited the room, smiling at how he had caused someone so much pain.

Sniffling, Kairi gently laid her boss back on the bloody floor and stood up. She was shaking, both out of rage and misery as she turned to face the boy who was now glaring at her. Eyes blinded by fury and tears, Kairi rushed him, throwing a fist in his face. So quick was her movement that the boy was thrown back, startled at her strength.

"You're gonna regret ever being born when I'm through with you," Kairi spat menacingly, advancing on him. He picked himself up however, and the two met again, in the air. They both had jumped and burst through the roof, now fighting on top of the house. Kairi knew she was a lousy fighter right now, but the fact that her boss was now dead made her keep throwing tangled fists and kicks at the assassin.

Then the boy kicked her in the stomach, throwing her off balance and causing her to roll of the roof and drop onto the porch. He soon followed and pounced on her, but she rolled to the side. Flipping up, Kairi stepped onto the wall of the house and ran horizontally, dagger in hand, and threw herself at the boy, both of their daggers clashing together. The earth vibrated as the weapons continued to collide and draw apart, almost as if they were magnets. Finally Kairi got the better end and knocked his knife away, giving her a wide opening and taking the advantage eagerly. She grabbed his collar and jumped up, taking him with her and slamming him into the ground, then high kicking him in the chin and throwing him over the edge of the balcony.

Kairi sighed and brushed her hair off her shoulder, although even small movements like that were painful. Turning around, Kairi headed back to the door of the house…until a knife in the back stopped her.

Kairi gasped as she felt cold metal insert itself into her shoulder, and she turned around slowly.

The boy stood there, panting slightly, one of his hands in a throwing position, while the other grasped the balcony for support, but he seemed rather fine having been thrown off of a ledge. Kairi dropped onto her knees, cringing as she felt hot blood trickle down her back. A little scream escaped her lips as she pulled the knife out, and she tossed it to the side. It hurt like hell, but Kairi tried her best not to show it.

"You bastard," She snarled, attempting to lift herself up. The boy didn't respond, but sauntered over to her and blocked her feeble attempts to punch him. He grabbed her wrists and pushed her up against the wooden barrage of the house, and drove his knee into her stomach, making her gasp in pain.

"Now to see who you really are," he said, gripping her mask and tearing it off. A dumb silence was met when the black cloth was taken off of Kairi's face, the only noise heard was the sound of the fabric recoiling off of the porch and flying off in the distance, getting battered with rain and wind.

Kairi felt the boy's hands loosening their grip on hers, and as she turned to look at him, she saw his eyes wide open with fear and surprise. Suddenly irritated by his dumbstruck expression, she shoved him off of her, which was surprisingly easy considering he was an assassin.

"What is it? Am I too beautiful for you?" She mocked, grasping her shoulder again to hinder the pouring blood.

"Kai…" The boy muttered, staring at her for extensive, agonizing seconds. Kairi jumped as she heard the boy mumble her name…her _nickname_.

Confused and mad, Kairi retracted her hand, then shot forward, grabbing the assassin's mask and ripping it off, just as he had done to her. Startled that he hadn't blocked her or anything, Kairi stumbled away and looked up, and nearly fainted, gasped, screamed, and cried at the sight in front of her.

"Sora…"

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Yay! I finally finished that chapter, that took forever didn't it? Well I really hope you liked it, so plz review!


	13. Betrayal

Woot woot! I got more than 10 reviews for my last chapter, so I'm really happy!

I LOVE YOU ALL! Hehehehe. Lol

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It was as if Kairi was living a dream…no, a nightmare, and she just wanted to disappear, erase the past, or have someone pinch her into reality. She didn't want to believe Vincent was dead, and she didn't want to believe Sora was actually the person that she least wanted him to be…even if the clues were obvious. True, she was scared to face the truth, but how would you feel if your worst fears were revealed? Terrible, huh? Well that's how Kairi felt, but ten times worse.

Kairi had been staring blankly at Sora for so long that she actually fell to her knees due to the lack of blood in her head and the loss of blood from her shoulder wound. Sora had his eyes glued to hers as well, confusion written all over his face, and it was him who said the first words.

"Kai, you need to get out of here," Sora told her suddenly, piercing into reality once again. "Aiden is going to come and…"

He couldn't seem to finish his sentence, but I wouldn't be able to either if I saw the expression fastened to Kairi's face. She was glaring the most hateful glare that Sora had ever seen, even when the two were fighting as assassins.

"What? Is he going to kill me too, just like he did to my boss?" Kairi yelled, tears congregating in little pools in her eyes, threatening to fall down. She didn't care if this was her friend anymore, because he was still an assassin, and he still was working for that wretched murderer Aiden.

Sora seemed taken back by these words and he shook his head.

"Kai, what are you say—"

"I trusted you!" Kairi cried, no longer able to keep the waterfall of tears trapped in her soaked eyes from falling and letting them spill down her blood stained cheeks. She was suddenly angry, suddenly so mad that she could barely hold it all in without tensing up with hate.

Kairi then threw herself at Sora, knocking him down in one clean swipe and recklessly throwing punches at his face. Obviously Sora had more strength than she did and grabbed her hands, once again pinning her against the wall of the house. Kairi cringed as pain erupted in her shoulder as soon as she hit the wooden wall and she glared up at the boy trapping her in this painful position.

"Let me go!" Kairi screamed, thrashing around in Sora's tight grip; he didn't loosen it one bit. Instead he pushed her even harder against the wall, blood now oozing steadily from her wound, causing her to gasp in abysmal pain.

"I'm sorry Kai," he said. "I didn't want this to happen, but there's nothing we can do about it now."

Kairi snorted at this remorse remark, even though deep inside she was tearing apart with controversy. It was a raging battle between heart and brain, and so far, her brain was winning.

"Please, save me the lame antics and fight me like a real assassin!" Kairi shouted, once again trying to shove Sora off of her. The boy didn't budge, although it was difficult for him to keep holding her, since Kairi was like a wild animal when provoked. He heaved her into the wall again, both out of anger and frustration, receiving a low growl from the girl he was holding.

"You've got to stop doing that," Kairi muttered angrily, but couldn't keep a sour look on her face for long, for Sora was now crying silently and gazing at her with a pitiful yet pleading expression glued to his face.

"Please Kai…" Sora begged, loosening his grip and letting Kairi's arms limply fall to her sides, his soon following suit afterward. "I don't want to see you get hurt any more than you already have. Please, you can do whatever you want to me later, but for now, just get out of here!"

Kairi was ultimately defeated, her heart cracked and bleeding, and she could no longer stay angry with her friend. True, he was an assassin, but for now she was too overwhelmed with depression to argue any further.

Kairi resisted her urge to trust him one final time, but finally she gave in, and whipped away, trotting down the porch. However she had only gone a few steps when she turned around to convene to the eyes of her friend, who was now her enemy.

They kept their gaze on one another for a very long time, until Kairi turned around so Sora wouldn't see the tears in her eyes, and she quickly jumped off the balcony.

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Kairi's mind was flashing back memories of Sora, and the good and bad times they had spent with each other echoing in her brain. Tears were spilling down her cheeks and she couldn't seem to stop them as she raced back home. Excuse me, let me rephrase that. She couldn't seem to stop the waterfall of tears spilling down her cheeks as she raced to some unknown place. She didn't want to go home, and she definitely didn't want to face Tifa and Cyrus, so she decided that she would…. wait. Where were Tifa and Cyrus? How come they weren't protecting Vincent?

_They probably were protecting him, but got ambushed by Aiden's gang… _Spoke Kairi's conscious. Just thinking about Vincent brought tears to her eyes, but she forced herself to be strong, for that's what her boss would want.

"Vince…" Kairi whispered in the wind as she reached a cliff, or what appeared to be the end of one, but erosion and other natural disasters had diffused it a little. Why do you ask? Why did Kairi come here? Well as many of you might have expected, it was Vincent's favorite spot in the town (well technically the way outskirts of town, but the town nonetheless.) He had brought Kairi here a couple of times to either train, or to enjoy the view. Of course it had always been sunny and beautiful when Vincent and Kairi were here, and since now he was dead, it was like the weather had changed as well. Kairi was getting soaked with rain, her whole body burning with unforgettable hate and regret. Tears shed from her eyes and her hands curled into tight fists, as if waiting for some unknown presence to appear so she could beat the living crap out of it.

"Why?" Kairi shouted, taking a step closer to the edge of the cliff. "Why did he have to die? WHY!"

Kairi punched the ground angrily, and did so until her knuckles began to bleed. Blood and tears splashed on the wet ground, creating a small pool of red liquid by Kairi's side. She almost saw her reflection upon it, but the pouring rain soon blotted it out. Half satisfied with her close-to-broken hand, Kairi stood up and let the unforgiving storm soak her like she were a sponge in a sink.

"You wanna fight? Huh? C'mon! Me against the elements! Give me your best shot, mother nature!" Kairi screamed to the sky, cringing as a bolt of lighting crossed the gloomy horizon. She knew she was being stupid, picking a fight with nature was probably the first sign of insanity, but at the present moment she would doubtlessly fight with pretty much anything.

Kairi continued to yell and scream and pick fights with random things until she fell down to the wet grass, completely exhausted.

"Vince…don't worry. Don't worry about anything, I'll take care of it," Kairi whispered, her voice choking off due to all the pain she was feeling, inside and out. Or maybe it was just because she had shouted her lungs out, and couldn't speak anymore. Her eyes fluttered, then began to droop lower and lower, and although she did not want to sleep right now, it was overpowering and she was soon enveloped in a heavy doze.

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"Hey Vince, did you ever meet my parents?" 13-year-old Kairi asked as she continued kicking the red pillow that she substituted as a punching bag. Vincent seemed caught off guard by this sudden inquisitive mood and he shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot. 

"_Uh…well not really," Vincent replied uneasily, questioning Kairi's inquiry with a stare. She didn't seem to notice however, and as she wiped her brow with a white cloth, she observed a slight confusion in the air._

"_I was just wondering because…I'm sure they would've liked you," Kairi stated, smiling at Vincent's surprised expression. Even though she barely remembered her parents, she just had this amusing thought of them meeting her boss, and how it would be like. Of course she knew they probably wouldn't be happy with the idea of Kairi killing people, but they would most likely be fond of how Vincent acted like a second father, always caring and instructive._

"_Ya know, you don't have to act so flustered when I talk about them," Kairi said, grinning again when Vincent goggled at her. "I don't see what the big deal is. Besides, I really can talk freely to you about these things."_

_Vincent's face lit up a little, and he flashed her a genuine smile._

"_Thanks Kai. I'm happy to know that you're okay with it," he said, "it" meaning when her parents died. Kairi smiled. She couldn't exactly not smirk when she was around him. Why? Because he was so fun and lovely to be around, and she couldn't be happier with him as a guardian._

_I want you to know that you're like a father to me….and don't you ever forget it._

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When Kairi awoke, her back ached tremendously and her limbs felt like they were going to snap. As she tried to move in to a more comfortable position, she found she couldn't move her arms due to something holding them back. Confused and agitated, Kairi opened her eyes to find herself not exactly where she had fallen asleep.

"Is she finally awake?" said a masculine voice not to far away from her. Kairi looked around feverishly, for she couldn't' see much attributable to the growing darkness surrounding her.

"I think so. Damn that girl sleeps a lot," replied another voice, however this one was a bit higher pitched and more disturbing than the last one. It sounded…evil, or at least that's the best way for Kairi to describe it. Finally Kairi faltered to see a pale light, most likely from a candle come floating ominously towards her. Frightened, Kairi backed away, and realized that her legs and arms where shackled and chained, and there was a handkerchief fixed tightly around her mouth. She had no idea where she was, and from the looks of it, things were just going to get worse.

"Ah Kairi, it seems that my loyal assassin did not kill you after all. How…disappointing," crowed the most sinister voice Kairi had ever heard. Evidently it was Aiden, and though he put the light to his face so she could see him, she already knew.

"I suppose I should finish the job for him, since he clearly was too shocked by your appearance to do so." Aiden continued devilishly, striding around the room in which Kairi was bound.

"Mmm! Mmrm, mmrmmm mmm, mrms mm!" Kairi shouted, but her jumbled words came out like a pile of mush, all mixed up and barely understandable. Aiden laughed, and Kairi cringed under his emanating malevolence.

"Sorry, looks as if your gag does a good job of keeping you from speaking," Aiden smirked victoriously. Then he smacked Kairi clean on the jaw, and she was thrown back hastily, reminding her of all the pain she had suffered from the day before. Painful tears wadded up in her eyes and she wished she could do something…anything to be out of this wretched state.

"Nobody is going to come for you," Aiden whispered, kneeling down to Kairi's level and staring straight into her fearful eyes. "You're going to be all alone for your death. I do wish Vincent could watch, but wait, I already killed him!"

Once again he laughed and he raised a long, mean looking dagger, that Kairi was pretty sure he used to kill Vincent. Kairi shut her eyes and turned to the side, as if expecting him to bring down the sword any second. There was no possible way for her to escape from this, even though it was the most horrendous thing for an assassin to just sit there and wait for an enemy to kill them.

"I'm sorry," Kairi whispered, a small tear escaping her eye. She was directing this toward Vincent, because she had felt that she was leaving this world with no vengeance for her boss. She had failed him, and for that she was always going to feel guilty.

However, as Kairi sat there waiting for her doom, she found that nothing was happening. Slowly opening her eyes, Kairi met her gaze with the most strangest, amazing, wonderful sight she had ever seen.

They had come for her.

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Yay! You don't know how happy I was when I finished this chapter! Yes I know I took a VERY long time, and for that I apologize greatly! I'm so sorry! bows headwhile being bombarded with angry reviewers lol. Well plz review again and I'll try to get the next chapter out sooner than I did this one!


	14. To trust or not to trust

Hey everybody! Thank you for reviewing (I'm so close to 100)! I'm sorry I'm starting this chapter so late, I really didn't want to, but I've extremely busy these past weeks, so if I don't get chapters out in just one or two weeks, forgive me! I'm trying :)

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Tifa expertly dodged a punch thrown at her from the blonde assassin, and doubled over as he tried to roundhouse kick. She looked to her left, and gave a reassuring nod to her partner-in-crime, Cyrus.

"C'mon, bad boys," Tifa taunted, receiving an angry growl from the two men she was fighting. It was bad enough that they had to find Vincent missing while they were supposed to _protect _him, but to run into Aiden's assassins again? Not only that, but Kairi went missing too, no note or anything…just gone. Had she found Vincent? Was he hurt? Was _she_ hurt?

These were the questions that perturbed Tifa as she went flying to the ground, blood oozing down her leg. Cursing, Tifa rendered herself up again, only to find a knife at her throat. One of Aiden's assassins had grabbed her arms, so she couldn't attack the other one that was threatening her with a weapon.

"Don't make a sound, or I'll slice you open," the blonde spat, the point of the blade coming dangerously close to her flesh. Fully agitated now, Tifa realized that they had forgotten she had legs, and smirking, she twisted up to boot the immobile dagger out of the assassin's hand. She managed to snake her arm out just in time to catch an incoming kick, but that didn't prevent the other man from using his palm to uppercut her chin.

Tifa stumbled crazily, attempting to break her fall by flipping backwards. However that only helped to her clumsiness attract to the ground, and as if a personal invitation to gravity, she was pulled down.

The assassins took this opportunity to jump on her once again, and Tifa came only half prepared to meet them with her dagger. Suddenly, as soon as her weapon went sailing out of her reach and the braided man with black hair had stuck her neck, a high pitched whistling sound came echoing to their ears and they quickly released their hold.

An unspoken agreement was made between her two enemies, and they soon were running away (to Tifa's sure amazement.)

Struggling to regain her composure, Tifa pushed on the ground as she slowly became erect again, sighing as she watched the men run away from her. It obviously wasn't because they were scared, but that weird squeal that they commonly heard every time they fought was some sort of call for them to draw back and…run?

"Tifa!" Cyrus called, jogging up to her. "You alright?"

"Yeah I'm fine…you?"

Cyrus nodded, although he couldn't help but notice the still trailing blood from Tifa's thigh.

"We should probably go find—" however Tifa was interrupted as she heard a noise that sounded like moving grass, and with stealth like speed she had already let loose a dagger. It was instantly knocked away, and Cyrus and Tifa both took up stances like hungry cats waiting to pounce on their prey.

"Don't attack me, I don't intend on fighting you," said a male voice…a _young_ male voice. It was Aiden's assassin, the one that Kairi fought every time they met up. His spiky brown hair gave away his identity immediately.

"What do you want?" Cyrus asked curiously, but keeping his fists up reassuringly, as if saying silently, _I'll listen, but if you try to do anything sneaky, I'll beat the shit out of you._

"Your friend needs you," he said calmly.

"What? What friend?" Tifa inquired, not trusting the boy one bit.

"That girl assassin…Kairi," he responded, his bottom lip trembling a little as he said her name.

"How do you know her? What type of sadistic joke are you trying to pull?" Shouted Tifa, losing it.

"I'm Sora! Of course I know her! We both go to the same school! I'm the one who beat her in the mile, the one who I'm sure Kairi's told you about!" Sora blurted out, not being able to contain it any longer.

Tifa took a step back, surprised. Yes, she did remember Kairi telling her about a guy named Sora with spiky brown hair, but she never in her wildest dreams imagined him as an assassin…working for their freaking ENEMY!

It was Cyrus who managed to sputter, "but aren't you working for Aiden? Weren't those guys who just attacked us your friends?"

Sora looked away.

"I guess you could call them that. But it was I who blew the whistle for them to come back."

"You mean that annoying high pitched…scream?"

Sora seemed to take that as an insult and he muttered a faint "yes."

"Sora, where is Kairi now?" Tifa requested, not caring about the whistle or Sora's identity anymore.

"She's at our…I mean Aiden's base. She's badly injured and she really needs your help." Sora replied, turning around briskly.

"Wait. If you're our enemy, why the hell are you telling us this stuff? Why would you even care?" Tifa demanded, leaning on Cyrus as her legs almost gave away.

Sora was silent for a while, not quite sure how to answer. How was he supposed to tell them that he…well, lets just say he had a slight crush on the girl, and to make a long story short, they had basically betrayed each other.

"Look. We don't have a lot of time. I'll explain everything later, but for now, Kairi needs us, and we can't waste our time with dumb questions that will only get you guys even more confused." Sora said sternly.

"Can we…trust you?" Tifa asked after a long pause. If it were any other assassin she would definitely not be willing to go anywhere with them, but since it was Sora…

"I guess you're going to have to." Sora said blankly, waiting impatiently for Kairi's friends to concur already.

Tifa looked regretfully at Cyrus, but he boosted her hopes up as he smiled. Somehow Cyrus always succeeded in making Tifa reassured about her decisions.

In a matter of seconds the three assassins were off, chasing Sora at a nice rate, not having a clue about where they were going, and only having a pale impression of what lay ahead of them. They still were clueless about Vincent, but if he was dead…Tifa shuddered, trying to think of only the positive.

Suddenly Sora stopped short, in front of a glowing miasma blob that loomed over them like a massive…looming…_thing_.

However as Sora approached it, Tifa backed away.

"No. No way in hell am I going in _there_." She refused, shaking her head madly.

"Yeah? Well how else are you going to get to Aiden's base?" he asked her, amused yet disconcerted at the same time. Once again they were just wasting precious time that could be used to save Kairi. But then again, Cyrus and Tifa didn't really know the whole story, so he couldn't completely blame them.

"This seems awfully odd, doesn't it? I mean you randomly know everything about Kairi, convince us to follow you, and now you want us to enter a portal thing that could lead to very likely trap of yours. Am I supposed to feel safe?" Tifa huffed angrily.

Sora sighed as he realized he would eventually have to face the inevitable, so he walked up to Tifa and pulled out a piece of red cape, torn and bloody.

"Does this look familiar? I believe it belongs to your boss."

Tifa stared at the cape with horror, and then snatched it away from Sora's grasp.

"Where did you get this?" Tifa stammered, because it definitely did belong to Vincent.

"It fell out of Kairi's pocket…I picked it up because I thought it would come in handy later on." Sora replied. Suddenly Tifa was right up in his face, pestering him with questions that he barely knew the answers to.

"Did you see him? Is Vincent…I mean my boss alright?"

Sora shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot. He wasn't exactly sure how to answer without saying "he's dead" in the middle of the sentence.

"He…um…well he kind of…he died." Sora managed to mumble out the words.

"What?"

"Your boss…Aiden killed him." Sora repeated lamentably.

"No…" Cyrus whispered, his eyes widening to the shock. Tifa on the other hand, didn't believe a single word Sora said.

"Of course he didn't die Cyrus! He's just trying to play with our minds!" Tifa laughed, although she was choking back the idea herself.

"You think I'm lying? Well then, why don't you go there yourself to figure out the truth!" Sora yelled at her, ticked off that Tifa was always trying to argue with him when he was only trying to help.

"I think I will!"

"Good!"

Silence.

Tifa let out a puff of air, then sighed and ran at the portal, diving in with a neat and organized grace. Cyrus followed, then Sora third. As soon as Sora's head hit the misty fluid of the portal, waves of emotion filled his body, and he felt wet all over. He jumped through these portals often, but every time he did it was like a whole new experience.

Sora rolled out and stood up, finding himself next to Cyrus and Tifa who had exited before him. Cocking her head, Tifa indicated for Sora to lead the way and he ultimately obliged.

They ended up in a wooden mansion like building, with lots of rooms and hallways that they would've been totally lost in if it weren't for their guide, Sora.

Once again Sora stopped short in front of a metal door that had a bunch of small holes in it. It basically looked like a cell door, except it didn't consist of straight metal bars.

"She better be in here or else…" Tifa threatened, but Sora was too concerned already to even hear her.

"I hope we aren't too late…" Sora whispered, more to himself than to anybody else. However as he tried to open the heavy metal door, he found that it was bolted and locked tightly.

"That bastard!" Sora screamed, pounding on the door with bawled up fists.

"Open this goddamn door!"

Tifa pushed Sora out of the way, flustered and just about ready to explode. Running up to the door, she back flipped as her feet pounded on the lock, and a satisfied smirk fastened upon her face as she heard the all too clear 'click' sound resonate in the air.

_Thanks Kai. It always works, _Tifa thought, silently thanking Kairi for the incredible trick she had showed her. Returning back to her angry state, Tifa, Cyrus and Sora pushed open the door, finally ready to face the big shock ahead of them.

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Kairi rested her gaze upon the hazy picture that played before her eyes in a magnificent approach. If she wasn't mistaken (due to her poor vision at the time), Cyrus and Tifa were beating the crap out of Aiden's assassins, while a boy with spiky brown hair ran towards her…

"Sora?" Kairi announced, although since her gag prevented her from talking normally, it sounded more like "Mmmm?" _Why on earth is he here? _Kairi thought confounded at the idea of Sora coming to her rescue.

"Kai…" Sora breathed contently. _Thank god she's all right…_

However just as Sora was about to reach her, Aiden grabbed Kairi's hair and pulled her head back, relaxing a metal sword upon her neck once again. He laughed as Sora's face became distorted with anger, as he realized he couldn't get close enough to his former boss without Kairi getting hurt.

"I'm surprised you actually went through with it, my boy. I thought it was only a temporary argument, but you were serious weren't you? My my, I underestimated you…traitor" Aiden hissed, attempting to hide his anger behind his composed features and failing.

"Let go of her," Sora spat, and Kairi could almost see the heat rising out of him. _Why was he so angry…with Aiden? _

Aiden's only response was pulling Kairi's hair tighter and digging his sword in her neck, drawing a small line of blood.

"You will not touch her until she is dead," Aiden said, then added with a smile, "Which should be soon."

Kairi's heart raced as she apprehended the situation a little. It looked as if she still had a fragile hope of living with Sora at her aid, although why he was helping her and her gang was still a mystery. Suddenly, two circular balls were thrown in the air, releasing a gas that filled the room and evaporated most of the breathable air. Just then Kairi felt the blade on her neck loosen up, and she ducked down, realizing that she could escape from Aiden with the cover of the smoke. She fought her way through the gas screen by crawling on her hands and knees, and she knew she was getting away when she heard the faint yells of Aiden somewhere in the distance.

"Kai, I got you…just hold on." Kairi heard Sora say as her eyes became droopy and she found that it was getting very difficult to breathe. The last thing she felt was strong hands upon her shoulders, lifting her up and forcing her to walk, before she groggily passed out. It didn't matter, because she knew that wherever she was going, was always going to better than here.

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Okay, I have only one excuse to my laziness and my absence for updating…SCHOOL! No really, my teachers were laying on the homework and finals for the last weeks of school, and I seriously had no time to even get on the computer, let alone think up ideas for the story! So I'm TERRIBLY SORRY for the two-month waiting period!

However I'm so happy that I got so many reviews for my last chapter! I LOVE YOU, MY DEDICATED FANS! I finally pulled through due to your very motivating reviews! Please, don't stop! I'll try to get the next chapter out really, no…EXTREMELY soon! I LOVE YOU ALL! MUAH! lol


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